Non-Violent Critter Control for Buddhists, and Other Gentle Gardeners
Written by Maria Gaura
SANTA CRUZ (July 2010) – When animal pests invade the garden, many homeowners are quick to trap, shoot or poison the creatures undermining their lawns, or pilfering their tomatoes.
But an increasing number of nonviolent gardeners, including vegans, Buddhists and the simply compassionate, are turning to humane traps that confine, but don't kill, the annoying animal. Yet humane trapping, while bloodless, can pose tricky problems of its own.
Once you’ve trapped a live raccoon, for instance, what do you do with it? As it turns out, there are few legal options for relocating your furry captive.
“A lot of people want to take the animal to a city park, or somewhere fairly convenient,” said Jeannine DeWald, associate wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game. “But then you end up with a big overpopulation of pest creatures in the parks. The idea is not to just move the problem to somebody else’s backyard.”
California law strictly regulates animal trapping and relocation of wild animals and, in most cases, requires that your humanely-trapped raccoon either be released elsewhere on your property or killed – preferably by a gunshot to the head. It is not legal to release your raccoon in a public park or open space, and it is not legal to move it out of the “immediate” vicinity in which it was captured – anywhere from a quarter-mile to three miles from the capture site, depending upon where you live.
In the Santa Cruz/Monterey area, the acceptable release area is considered to be within one-quarter mile of the capture site, according to DeWald.
It is legal to relocate your raccoon to private property within the defined “immediate” vicinity, but only with the property owner’s permission. Yet the likely result of relocating the creature nearby is that it will soon return, and resume whatever disruptive antics inspired you to trap it in the first place.
While strict, the rules are not arbitrary, according to Nicole Carion, statewide coordinator of wildlife rehabilitation for the Department of Fish and Game.
“It’s all about genetics, disease and the carrying capacity (of a habitat),” Carion said. Not only can your relocated raccoon spread disease to uninfected raccoons in the relocation area, it can dilute the genetics that have allowed that native population to thrive.
“These animals may look similar, but over time they’ve developed different attributes that help them conform to their habitat,” Carion said. “They may have thicker fur, for instance, or thicker pads on their paws.” Introducing animals genetically adapted to a different environment can potentially disrupt the effects of thousands of generations of natural selection on a native population.
There is also a concern about how many animals the land can support, she said. “There was a notorious situation in Los Angeles years ago, where people would remove twenty or thirty raccoons at a time from suburban neighborhoods and take them all out to the Angeles National Forest,” Carion said. “You had an area that could support one raccoon, and you’d add twenty or thirty more, and all of them would starve.”
If releasing a trapped animal is difficult, killing it also poses unpleasant choices. A gunshot to the head is the quickest way to kill, and is the legally preferred option. But many cities, including Santa Cruz, prohibit the discharge of firearms within city limits. Euthanasia drugs are legal, but not available to the general public. It is not legal to feed poison to a trapped animal, and drowning or suffocating it can be cruel, drawn-out, and messy.
What is a tenderhearted gardener to do?
According to many wildlife experts, the first thing to do is explore whether you’re causing your own problems by offering food and shelter to unwanted animals. Overloaded birdfeeders attract rats, mice and squirrels, and unattended cat and dog food bowls attract raccoons, possums, skunks and even foxes. All of those potentially problematic animals are attracted to windfall fruit from backyard trees, and trashcans with easily-removed lids.
“I suggest to my non-violent and Buddhist clients that they use barriers to keep the animals out, and use repellents to drive away the ones causing the problems,” said Thomas Wittman, a licensed trapper. “You need to figure out the problem and solve the causes, not the syptoms. Trapping should be absolutely the last resort.”
Animals in attics and basements can be driven out with strong-smelling sprays such as Pine-Sol, and the opening that allowed them access can be secured. Reducing food sources will eventually reduce the pest population. And some animal presence can simply be tolerated, since complete eradication is unlikely.
Wittman, owner of pest control company Gophers Limited, offers regular seminars on non-violent pest control, and says he increasingly gets calls from people with philosophical objections to harming animals.
“I am seeing a lot more of that attitude – the Palo Alto area is a real hotbed for it,” Wittman said. “I had one client who had us surround her property with gopher fencing sunk two feet into the ground, with an L-shaped bend. Then we doused the ground with castor oil and fish emulsion to herd out the gophers and moles that were inside the barrier.
“It was expensive, and time consuming,” Wittman said. “But you have to respect that humane attitude, that this was worth it to her.”
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