Coons

SASSAS said:
As for the baby eating raccoon droppings, if he's young enough to not know better, the parents need to stop paying attention to Oprah and Regis and watch their kid, or the if the kid is old enough to know better, it's just natural selection (or even part of an intelligent design) weeding the kid out of the gene pool.

Hmm. Your analysis is a quite a few shades too black and white for me.

The parents put the baby on a blanket on the grass in their back yard. The baby was 18 months or so. The kid was grabbing around as babies do, and grabbed something and put it into its mouth, as babies do. Babies are not quite intellectually capable of discerning whether what they are putting in their mouth is dangerous or not. Witness the toddler in Australia who put a crawling funnel web spider into its mouth.

Accidents that happen to babies, or even little kids for that matter, do not necessarily make the parents unfit or the child deserving of its fate. Children often do thoughtless things, but in any case this was a toddler. Once you have children you will quickly realize that it is impossible to watch a toddler every second, although you exhaust yourself trying.

So, I don't think that either Oprah or natural selection or even intelligent design had anything to do with it. Just too many raccoons.
 
I think there is a way to be hypervilgilent and watch over your child like a Nanny policmen. Those kids don't do very well though.

Actually, I'm just being academic. There is no way to safeguard any child from childhood and the Big Life. You do the best you can and take prudent measures Still, some don't make it. I had fences and all kinds of do good blockades around the last the two houses. I kept certain areas off limits until they were old enough to navigate the stairwell by themselves safely. Guess what? I think all three eventually fell head over heels down those stairs. Anyone think I should have had them on a leash? Ball and Chain? Anti gravity boots?



munk
 
I think a bit of controlled risk is good for children. Kates could handle the steps here at the house long before 2.

However we still keep the knives and guns out of her reach.

I do think it's funny when you get too close to her "kitchen" that she tells you "Sharp!"
 
My kids leave the guns and knives alone. The only loaded gun is still above their strength level to operate, even if they broke the rules and tried. Now that they're all out of babyhood, none has shown the slightest interest in trespassing over these things. It just isn't done.

Baby did get ahold of a khuk once. He found it in the firewood box. Darn, he was hypervigilent about any changes in that firewood box. He'd examine every new stick in there, and found the khuk buried underneath. This was the time I wrote about previously where I dove to get the blade out of his hand and broke several of my toes. He was unscratched.





munk
 
OK, I've got some heavy duty garbage cans I just bought today. And it has a solid lid requiring pressing a certain part to open. Let's see if the coons make a mess of the garbage tomorrow!
 
I may have told this racoon story before.

Racoon was raiding garbage can.
Got new can with lid that snapped on - HARD.
Racoon raided new can.
Place cinder blocks on lid.
Racoon raided can.
Wired cinder blocks to can lid.
Racoon raided can.

So I laid in wait to see how it was done. Robber wedged him/herself between cinderblocks and wall of house, braced back against house, and tipped can over by pushing with feet. The impact with the ground removed the lid.

Wired can lid shut. Too #W%^&@! trouble to get in and out, so the cans went into the unusued attached garage.

After a solid week of banging on the garage door at 2:00 A.M., robber finally gave up. Phew!

And they use "latrines" no less. :o
 
yeah, they knock them over or squeeze through. Electric wiring might be interesting.

I'm still looking for tougher trash cans, though.



munk
 
munk said:
yeah, they knock them over or squeeze through. Electric wiring might be interesting.

I'm still looking for tougher trash cans, though.



munk

Hey! That's the ticket! Electric cattle fence transformer. You can hear and see the "pop, pop, pop" on your TV. The Racoon screams and curses will be some compensation
 
This morning the trash was on the lawn, the barrel halfway down a small hill.


munk
 
Svashtar said:
Hmm. Your analysis is a quite a few shades too black and white for me.

The parents put the baby on a blanket on the grass in their back yard. The baby was 18 months or so. The kid was grabbing around as babies do, and grabbed something and put it into its mouth, as babies do. Babies are not quite intellectually capable of discerning whether what they are putting in their mouth is dangerous or not. Witness the toddler in Australia who put a crawling funnel web spider into its mouth.

Accidents that happen to babies, or even little kids for that matter, do not necessarily make the parents unfit or the child deserving of its fate. Children often do thoughtless things, but in any case this was a toddler. Once you have children you will quickly realize that it is impossible to watch a toddler every second, although you exhaust yourself trying.

So, I don't think that either Oprah or natural selection or even intelligent design had anything to do with it. Just too many raccoons.


You're right...I was a little harsh in writing this.

It still seemed like (and not having seen the coverage or knowing all the history , I may just be interpreting from what has become the way news is done), one of those. "something bad happens, gets newspeople's attention and now we have a new uber-mance" things. Headline = 'Raccoons - Cute Little Critters or Bin Ladens Bio-weapons!!!!!'

Sometimes these things play out with "We're being overrun with raccoons and they're defecating all over the yards." nobody does something about it and then something bad happens and it finally gets addressed. If the conditions are that bad, it would make me be a little more cautious about inspecting where I'd put a kid down in the backyard (for raccoon droppings, broken glass, bees or whatever).

Sometimes, it's the opposite and something bad happens through a freak set f circumstances, by chance or just an honest mistake and that just doesn't make as good (or as long) a news story without a compelling and sometimes overstated villain or crisis.

Regardless, I really should have phrased my other comments a bit more tactfully.
 
Regardless, I really should have phrased my other comments a bit more tactfully.>>>>> SASSAS

Don't worry about it. We must be free enough to talk easily and openly to each other in our forum. If we are not, then this is not our forum. Also, we try to refrain from easy or quick stereotyping of one another, putting the other in a convenient box. Rush to judgement breeds fear and 'inside' groups within the community. The 'ins' and 'out's'.


munk
 
Howard Wallace said:
I used live traps to catch a neighbor's possums.

Then I used a WWII to behead one prior to prepping him for the table.

Coons might pose a bigger challenge.

However, if you live trap you have the luxury of keeping them around for a few days and feeding them fruit prior to eating them.

Fe fi fo fum ...


You should try snaring them. Snaring is cheaper than live traps, though not as humane. If you care about that, I don't. I'm from cajun country and coon is a great meal. be careful with snares if you have pets...cats especially. Also if your neighbor has a pesky cat snares are good for that too.
 
I live in an older part of the city. Coons live in the storm sewers. This little area loses about 4 dogs a year to coons. :confused: Usually the dog chases the coon into a swimming pool; the coon latches onto the dog's mussel and drowns it. :thumbdn: Kill them Says I. Al
 
Snares? I've been considering a bear trap. Put some spring fed claws through that Coon.

He's spread too much of my trash for me to think of his immortal soul now.


munk
 
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