I was talking with a pest control company employee who told me how he quit another pest control company because of their practice of gassing animals they captured in those have-a-heart type traps. He said he was asked by management to do this to a raccoon he captured and he refused to do it. He felt the animal should have been taken to the woods and released, which is what home owners do who do this type of trapping.
I was shocked to hear this. I don’t know a thing about the pest control industry or if there are laws or even ordinances for this sort of thing. At the very least, it seems to be a violation of trust to the customers.
What state are you in? In many states (I know California and Massachusetts are two of them), it’s illegal to release a trapped animal off your own property. “The woods” are either someone else’s private property, who probably doesn’t want the pest animal either, or a state or federal park or the like. I doubt that animal shelters take raccoons either. If the animal is not endangered, euthanizing it may be the reasonable only option.
And certainly not all homeowners who trap their own pest animals release them.
If the consumers contracted for the animals to be removed to a safe location, that’s one thing. But as mentioned, that’s not a very easy thing to do. And most public lands don’t need you dropping off animals from away.
Laws vary widely between jurisdictions so there’s no blanket rule about killing raccoons. They don’t appear to be covered by any federal laws so it’s a matter of what is legal for homeowners versus licensed professionals.
Got it in one. Releasing pests “in the woods” is neither fair t the property owner or humane to the animal. The animal now has to fend for itself someplace it’s never been before…
Most wild animals are very territorial. Releasing a wild animal, say a raccoon, into another territory is to place it effectively in enemy territory. It isn’t going to be welcomed or allowed a space of it’s own.
It is most likely to be torn apart quite violently. Expecting that it will be welcome into the clan, tribe, herd, is just wishful thinking.
Where I live, the usual procedure for dealing with raccoons and opossums involves catching them in a Havahart trap and shooting them through the wire of the trap with whatever firearm is convenient. Havahart is such a great name for these traps!
I don’t see the logic in paying someone to capture a nuisance animal and then releasing it to be a nuisance again.
Or I think another possibility is that it will manage to find it’s way back to it’s territory, which means you have to go and catch it again!
Sadly, in all the many ways humans kill animals, gassing (or shooting) it isn’t so bad. Given my druthers, I’d put the racoon into a sanctuary with other happy raccoons to live out it’s life without bothering people. But that’s not reality…
Yes, pest control companies are allowed to kill pests. So are private home owners.
I get that some people are upset by this. Frankly, I’m not keen on it, either. Here at the Broomstick homestead we try to live trap and relocate but the fact is that is not always practical or wise.
Compared to a lot of ways to die, getting a quick shot to the head or being gassed is relatively quick, even if not painless. All those various animals would react with violence if something invaded their dens, why should we expect anything different from humans?
To wrap it all up - it depends on the animal and the location. For instance, in Georgia it is illegal to kill a native, non-venomous snake. That law applies to homeowners and pest control companies equally.
If it’s legal for the homeowner to kill the animal then it’s legal for a pest control company to do the same, and vice versa.