A Raccoon, Chickens And A Hammer

[debrand]

I own chickens and I certainly understand the attachment that can develop to animals. In the article, Josh Harris talks about his child's grief when her pet chickens are killed. So, I also understand that he was hurt for his child.

For those who live in the country and own chickens, raccoons can be a huge nuisance. They will reach through your chicken wire, climb over it, dig over or even go through it. The solution is to build a chicken house that is Fort Knox. A good dog that doesn't chase chickens can help also. Heck, a dog will alert you to the raccoon, that alone can be a big help.

Some people dispatch raccoons with a gun. I can certainly understand why. Trapping them and moving them elsewhere just gives another person the headache of dead chickens(unless you really can take them far, far, far away from humans) But my desire to be humane is sometimes at odds with my desire to protect my birds.

But, I would never take a hammer to a raccoon. A. its a big animal. B. It bites. C. It might pass on Rabies. D. Its a cruel way to kill something. Once you damaged it, you're going to be forced to kill it because how will it survive in the wild. E. I've very aware that animals are just trying to survive. F. If you are going to kill something, be humane about it. Don't prolong the creature's suffering Hammering to death would be a horrible, painful way to die G. The chicken was already dead. Beating something to death wouldn't have helped the situation

I was so picking' mad I started swinging at him with a hammer I had brought to try and patch up the coop. If you're a big raccoon fan you should probably skip this part. I was doing my best to kill that little beast. The funny thing is that I actually like raccoons. I read that book about the pet raccoon when I was a kid. What was it's name? I can't remember, anyway I don't mind raccoons but tonight all the fatherly, protective zeal of a chicken farmer came out in pure rage. I swung that hammer like an insane man. The raccoon would climb up the side of the coop and I'd knock it down. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops. It was totally dark and my flashlight bobbed around, spot-lighting the raccoon every few seconds and then "Wham!" It finally ran back inside the coop and climbed out the front window before I could get to it. In an instant it was gone.

What do you guys think about this story? A part of me understands his anger. Another part of me doesn't believe that I would react in that fashion. We took in a stray dog that was a chicken killer. Nothing could keep her out of the coop. She would kill and leave the bodies. I was never really mad at her because I understood that she was following her instincts. Eventually we found her a nice, chicken free house.

joshharris.com/2006/02/tragedy_at_the_harris_farm.php

[formergothardite]

:shock: I am 100% sure I wouldn't react that way. The more I read about this family the more I dislike them.

[debrand]

:shock: I am 100% sure I wouldn't react that way. The more I read about this family the more I dislike them.

This wasn't the first time he had lost animals to predators so he must have been aware that there were animals who would kill his pet chickens. There is no mention in the article about what type of precautions he took to prevent future attacks.

Did he bury any fencing to keep animals from digging into the coop? My brother's coop has cheap metal all the way around the bottom portion of the outer fence, I assume to keep animals from climbing onto the fence so they can enter the chicken yard.

[VodouDoll]

I am also 100% sure that I would never beat an animal to death with a hammer (or with anything else) unless it was trying to attack me and a hammer was the only weapon I had. Beating an animal that's not posing any threat to a person to death is a sick thing to do.

[MerryHappy]

I agree, Debrand.

What he did was just pure stupidity.

[deelaem]

Hi debra, I own chickens too. As a matter of fact, I think we both used to post on the Backyard Chickens forum. You may still post there, but I left because I couldn't stand the christian preachiness, the right-wing bullshit, and the predator hate that flourished there.

I'll never get over how personally some of the people there took predator attacks on their chickens. They seemed to believe that the raccoon, fox, or stray dog did this JUST to piss them off. I wrote a post there once talking about how badly these people were anthropomorphizing normal animal behavior, but of course it went right over their heads.

I think people like Josh Harris have such a huge sense of entitlement that they can't grasp the concept that a predator preying on his chickens wasn't personal. And they react to this affront with violence, which just makes them look more stupid than they already did.

Oh, and yeah, my coop is pretty much Fort Knox, and predators have still breached it from time to time. It's just a part of raising chickens, right? :)

[Deleted02]

I have chickens and I have lost a few to raccoons. But I would NEVER take a hammer to one. That is just cruel.

I moved the chicken pen closer to the house and I shut them up at night. Haven't lost one since. I can't justify killing the raccoon because he has to eat too.

[Bookworm]

Wow, that was totally over the top. :evil: I do not understand having that sort of reaction. Even if you actually genuinely depended on your chickens for food, wouldn't you just try to cleanly kill the raccoon for some extra food? My family has had poultry a lot. When I was a teen I got a flock of chickens and had trouble with predation, including something which got in, amputated a wing from one of the hens (!) and left again. (The hen did not seem too upset, believe it or not, and with time in a separate cage got well and totally lived a happy life) We had neighborhood dogs, at least two separate bears, coyotes, foxes, probably raccoon at least once, a few occasions with possums, and surprisingly no mountain lions eat our poultry. Sometimes we would interrupt an animal in the middle of breaking into one of the houses. Even when someone would find a rattler none of us ever tried to beat anything up. Either kill it quick or let it go. The most infuriating animals are actually pet dogs running loose because they do not need the food like the wild animals do, but I still cannot imagine just going at any animal like that.

[debrand]

I was on Backyard Chicken Forum and left for reasons similar to your own, deelaem.

Because we want to sell our house, we are giving my chickens to my brother so I won't have the birds anymore.

Josh didn't find the raccoon killing the chicken. The bird was already dead. I could understand trying to save the bird and hitting the raccoon. I could even excuse shooting it so that it wouldn't return to his property. That would have been a quick clean death. I just don't understand attempting to beat it to death.

[pomology]

Yeah, I am not an avid supporter of PETA or anything (in fact, I hate PETA), but I am all for minimizing cruelty to animals. Every year we get a big ant infestation in my bathroom and I am all for poisoning those suckers, but last night we had a cricket in our house and my dad just helped get it back outside, not harm necessary. We often have bunnies getting into our garden, which annoys the hell out of my parents, but they don't kill the bunnies just for ruining their hard work (though I can't say they seemed all that angry when my dog killed a bunny...) But I can see how chickens are different than plants and you might want to protect your chickens by killing their attackers. Fine. Call animal control. Shoot them with a gun for all I care (and I am generally against guns, but it's at least a reasonably humane way to kill raccoons). Don't fucking beat it to death with a hammer. Who gets it in their head to do that, no matter how angry they are?

[deelaem]

I was on Backyard Chicken Forum and left for reasons similar to your own, deelaem.

Because we want to sell our house, we are giving my chickens to my brother so I won't have the birds anymore.

:( That's a shame. Maybe you can get some more in your new place. Right now I'm supporting freeloaders, as my girls are getting old and hardly ever lay anymore. But I'm not quite enough of a hard-core livestock person to be able to just make stew of them. Damn my soft heart! :lol:

Ooops, sorry about the thread derailing.

[Rosa]

My girlfriend in college, her folks had about a million farm cats and kept some straw & food for them in a loafing shed that only had 3 sides. Raccoons would come in for the food, maul the adult cats, and eat kittens if they could. It was pretty gory, and a raccoon had torn up one of their dogs pretty bad in the past.

They trapped & shot raccoons, and had a big dog (that was smart enough not to tangle with a raccoon, but would trap one so someone could go shoot them.) Her dad was an abusive, mean sonofabitch, but even he never beat a raccoon to death.

[dawbs]

My husband and I have had to put animals down in...well, what look gruesome ways. But that's different, you do what you have to do (IMO, it's recognizing that there IS a point where doing something that seems cruel is the LESS cruel thing to do (to, say, a 'possum that we shot for attacking the dog and now the gun is jammed and we can't let it slowly bleed to death for hours and hours or wander very wounded away).

I can get being angry--angry at yourself for not making the coop right, angry at the way the world works taht your kid got hurt. Angry that yu'rein the situation.

But raccoons do what raccoons do and chickens do what chickens do--as my dad would ahve said when I brought him an injured animal and felt this sort of childish anger (although he would have added 'That's how God made them.')

[Guest Anonymous]

Hi debra, I own chickens too. As a matter of fact, I think we both used to post on the Backyard Chickens forum. You may still post there, but I left because I couldn't stand the christian preachiness, the right-wing bullshit, and the predator hate that flourished there.

I was on Backyard Chicken Forum and left for reasons similar to your own, deelaem.

Well, hello you two! I'm yet another Backyard Chicken refugee. I enjoyed the old board, when the new guy took it over it went way to shit in my opinion. I moved into town so I had to give my flock to my uncle, but I'd love to have more some day.

It's a small internet! :P

[Rosa]

(I'm another occasional Backyard Chicken reader who can't stand the politics. Maybe we need a Heathen Backyard Chicken board.)

[deelaem]

Well, hello you two! I'm yet another Backyard Chicken refugee. I enjoyed the old board, when the new guy took it over it went way to shit in my opinion. I moved into town so I had to give my flock to my uncle, but I'd love to have more some day.

It's a small internet! :P

It is indeed a small internet! I've always viewed you and debrand as very intelligent and sensible women, so no wonder you left there and ended up here! :lol:

I'll be happy to send you a few of my freeloaders, Lissar...;)

ETA: And you too, Rosa! Love the idea of a heathen chicken board!