Bounty hunter

[Gewehr-Guy]

The state of South Dakota just introduced a new plan to boost the pheasant numbers by offering a $10 bounty on raccoons,skunks,possoms,badgers, and red fox. They will be distributing 16,500 live traps free of charge to the first 5500 people that registered for the program. I believe they had over that many registrations in the first day, so there is a lot of interest in this program, so it will be interesting to see the numbers of animals taken.

Are there any other states with a similar program, and how successful was it? I know I'll have some dog-proofs out, cause I hate raccoons, and a $10 bill makes them worth going after.

[JBinMN]

Makes me wonder what they are gonna do with the "live" ones, since they are offering the "live" traps. (< Havahart traps perhaps?) BTW, the "Havahart" traps are not cheap anymore... IMO, anyway. Had 2 gave one to a friend some years back. They work great & last a long time.

Either way, the trappers there or in neighboring states will be certainly thinking about this a lot. Particularly if it is a year round deal. Thus, no skin/pelt prep involved to get the $10.

Just pondering "out loud" in print here....

[Texas by God]

Man, if it's Dead or Alive I could retire!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Mica_Hiebert]

Makes me wonder what they are gonna do with the "live" ones, since they are offering the "live" traps. (< Havahart traps perhaps?) BTW, the "Havahart" traps are not cheap anymore... IMO, anyway. Had 2 gave one to a friend some years back. They work great & last a long time.

Either way, the trappers there or in neighboring states will be certainly thinking about this a lot. Particularly if it is a year round deal. Thus, no skin/pelt prep involved to get the $10.

Just pondering "out loud" in print here....

Still probably plan on the dispatching of the pest but with live traps their not held liable for trapped pets.

[JBinMN]

Still probably plan on the dispatching of the pest but with live traps their not held liable for trapped pets.

Yes, you are most likely correct.

I only have 1 Havahart trap, but I have about 30 other ones from 1-1/2 pan traps, up to 330 conibear traps, so you can figure that I think more in terms of "dead" critters, & not live ones. Live ones in the pan sets are not live for long... Part of the job...

The traps I set are legally done & with "wild" critters in mind, 99% of the time "out in the sticks", although there are times where I have had to deal with some feral cats.

The mention of "live" traps & being used by town/city users where domestic critters could be caught, wasn't in my thinking.

You made a good point & Thanks!

[Gewehr-Guy]

I guess I should have specified, they don't want the critter, just the tail , and only taken between April 1 and August 31. Not sure why they don't want the coyotes?

[Johnch]

I wish Ohio would do that !!!

Last year Dad , My Brother and I each had Raccoon Crop Damage permits
OK I have just a barn , my brother farms the land

But when the crops are up
We can start trapping raccoons , all we want till the day before regular Raccoon season starts

We kill several hundred every year

In some areas we use home made box traps .... most of the locals don't like us to kill the house or barn cats we catch

4 easy ways to deal with Raccoon , possom and Skunk
#1 Is easy if a creek close , throw a piece of tarp over the trap .... lower into the water ( over the top ) and come back 10 min later to empty the trap
#2 A mix or rat poison and wet cat food or hamburger in 3/4" balls ... drop 3-4 of the balls into the trap and come back later to empty the trap , good for skunks when away from water , as most of the time they don't spray
A 10' section of 1" PVP pipe lets me get the balls into the trap from a safe distance with skunks
#3 Simple high speed lead poisoning
#4 for BIG MEAN Raccoons , Fingernail Polish remover .... Go to a farm supply store and get 20 cc syringes
Put 10 - 15 cc of Fingernail polish remover AKA acetone in it , duct tape to a stick and inject raccoon .... come back in 10 min to empty trap

But Dog Proof traps are simple

John

[nvbirdman]

Removing a skunks tail would be worth a lot more than ten dollars to me.

[ghh3rd]

I guess I should have specified, they don't want the critter, just the tail

Too bad they don’t grow tails back like the lizards here in Florida. You could have a perpetual crop of tails (-:

[Iowa Fox]

Has this bill actually been passed into law or just proposed? Crows need to be added to the list as they will eat a nest of eggs just as fast as anything. Iowa needs the same legislation with a lot of other critters added. Heck if they would just ease the restrictions people would take care of the problem no charge.

[JBinMN]

I predict a lot of roadkill will be missing tails in SD & neighboring states.

[dale2242]

Great idea there.
It`s going to get costly with the price of the traps and bounty.dale

[KCSO]

Back when you could actually trap and SELL fur this wasn't a problem.

[SvenLindquist]

Now if they would add Feral Cats, they might get more birds to hunt. When i was kid, in the country, in upstate NY, we shot 100s every year. "City folks" would have litters and dump them out our way. A few would survive. One guy would drive (at night), other sit on hood w/20 bore shotgun. See the eyes ---- boom. Song/game birds and bunnies came back in a big way.
Here in Key West, they are trapped, neutered, ear notched and released. Needless to say, we have very few wild birds. As KW is an "animal sanctuary" you can't kill them ---- then there are the Iguanas and Moniter lizards ---- barklickin loons run the place!

[gwpercle]

The state of South Dakota just introduced a new plan to boost the pheasant numbers by offering a $10 bounty on raccoons,skunks,possoms,badgers, and red fox. They will be distributing 16,500 live traps free of charge to the first 5500 people that registered for the program. I believe they had over that many registrations in the first day, so there is a lot of interest in this program, so it will be interesting to see the numbers of animals taken.

Are there any other states with a similar program, and how successful was it? I know I'll have some dog-proofs out, cause I hate raccoons, and a $10 bill makes them worth going after.

I can send you a few recipe's . In Louisiana we hunt them as small game and fur trappers used to trap them for hides.... I remember getting $3.00 per hide and in 1962 money that was like having $20.00 to spend . Make them raccoon coats fashionable again... and they eat well if you know how to fix them.
Gary

[gwpercle]

back when you could actually trap and sell fur this wasn't a problem.

like button hit !

[472x1B/A]

Back when you could actually trap and SELL fur this wasn't a problem.

All great post, but this is the best.

[Conditor22]

Still probably plan on the dispatching of the pest but with live traps their not held liable for trapped pets.

I thought only rednecks kept pets like that

If a person can't tell the difference between raccoons, skunks, possums, badgers, and red fox and pets they shouldn't be hunting.

If people have pets like that they shouldn't let them out where they can be hunted/trapped.

[woody1]

I've trapped 3 skunks in the last 5 days with only 1 trap. Just protecting my chickens. Oh yeah, 3 racoons so far this winter and the "cat killer" dog and I get 5-8 feral cats a year. Our property boundary is about a hundred yards from a favorite cat dump site. Yes they are feral or at least nearly so as there's no one living within a quarter of a mile of us. I haven't seen a quail this winter either and only saw one short brood last fall. I used to think the nesting birds were mostly got by the cats but with fur prices to low there's no trapping so...

[Gewehr-Guy]

I would like to know if this program has a budget cap, or will be a year to year program dependent upon the advice of the Game Dept. or state lawmakers. I don't think they realize how many tails they are going to receive, my guess is that people are already burying tails in the freezer, hoping the wife don't find them!!
Three years ago the coons started digging in my silage pile,and found my sweet corn patch, and pissed me off big time, so set some traps and got 48 coon and a couple possums. the next year about half that many, and last year less than ten, so I'm making progress. Some young farm kids could have some fun with this, and make some decent money, especially if they are burning Dad's gas.