For nuisance problems, live-trapping and relocating is NOT the humane solution. During spring and summer you will likely be separating a mother from her babies, leaving them to starve. This is a very cruel consequence of trapping wildlife. It's a tough life for wildlife. Please remember that, and have compassion when they cause you some inconvenience in their simple efforts to survive.

It has been shown that a large number of relocated adult animals will die very soon after relocation. They may be unable to find appropriate food, water or shelter in their new habitat, they may be killed by predators, or run out of a territory already overwhelmed with wildlife. Please see the species-specific brochures for help in dealing with nuisance wildlife problems.

• Bats
• Cottontail Rabbits
• Grackles, Starlings, and Pigeons
• Opossums
• Raccoons
• Woodchucks

10. It is not an effective solution. If you remove one animal from your property, another will come to take its place.
    
    
9. You will never succeed in eliminating wildlife from your property. As long as you have a source of food or shelter (e.g. accessible trash, pet food left outside, grubs in your lawn, uncapped chimney, holes in your eaves) they will come. Eliminate, fix or secure the source of your problem, and you will solve it with much less wasted effort.
   
   
8. Trapping is indiscriminate-you may trap your neighbor's cat or another animal completely unrelated to your nuisance problem.
   
   
7. It's not fair. Where do we expect wildlife to exist? Never-ending expansion of urban areas to accommodate the ever-growing human population has left wildlife no choice but to adapt to us. Don't we owe them a little tolerance?
   
   
6. It's illegal in the off season. Although it is widely ignored, all forms of trapping are legally limited to designated hunting and trapping seasons. These seasons are defined to allow animals to breed and raise their young during non-hunting and trapping seasons, free from harassment.
   
   
5. It is highly stressful to an animal to be trapped and to be relocated. Most animals do not survive in unfamiliar territory. Resident animals will drive off the intruder, or the animal will not know where to find food or shelter, if it is even available. A recent study notes that over 90% of relocated raccoons die within a short period of time.
   
   
4. "Humane" traps are anything but humane. Frequently animals do serious injury to themselves trying to escape during the hours they are confined in a live trap.
   
   
3. Fear, as a reason for trapping, is irrational. Wild animals have no interest in attacking you, your pets, or your children. Their only reason for aggression is self-defense, and their first choice is always to escape the perceived danger.
   
   
2. With just a little effort, we can coexist peacefully with wildlife. If they cause you minor inconvenience, please remember their only motivation is survival. They have no concept of property or damage. There are many more effective and less disruptive alternatives to trapping.
   
   
1. And the #1 reason NOT to trap and relocate ...
   When you trap and relocate, someone's mother might not come home.
   
   

From early spring until late fall, chances are 50/50 that the animal you trap is a mother, whose babies depend on her for their survival. Taking a mother away from her babies condemns them to a very cruel fate - starvation and death.