With over 100,000 masked bandits scampering through the streets of Toronto it is undeniable that the city has a raccoon problem. Raccoons can be pesky little critters, creating massive messes for homeowners to clean up and posing health risks wherever they encroach. It is therefore understandable that many would wonder why not just kill the raccoons?

Mass Animal Killing is Bad for Mother Nature

In an age where national and international concern over the welfare of animals is growing, we simply cannot afford to be considering killing animals as a solution to infestation problems. Mass killing of raccoons in an attempt to alleviate the annoyance of infestation is cruel and in some cases counterproductive.  Remember human beings do not have exclusive rights to planet earth. The animals have rights too.

Over the years, if nothing else, history has taught us that tampering with nature only brings devastating results. The animals of the world are already contending with pollution, climate change and a host of other man-made threats. We simply cannot add deliberate mass killings to the number.

Culling Can Backfire

In addition to blatantly breaching the rights of the animals, culling is not an effective means of animal control. Mass killing of animals has been known to throughout history trigger a rebound effect where there is an upsurge in breeding thereafter. In these cases, culling achieves the opposite of what was intended. To be an effective animal control raccoon removal method, culling has to be combined with other methods many of which would work just fine without culling.

What to Do?

As a homeowner, if you decide to kill the raccoons that encroach on your property, you’ll be very busy for a long time. A better option would be to raccoon-proof your space and find ways to discourage them from approaching your property. As a homeowner there are also multiple laws that should be followed if you choose to kill or capture a wild animal.

If you know what raccoons dislike then you can plan ways to discourage them from visiting your space. For example, you can keep raccoons off your lawn and green spaces by sprinkling pure soap flakes.

Experts to the Rescue

At the end of the day though, only expert animal control raccoon removal teams can really effectively solve your raccoon issues. Humane methods respect animal rights. Raccoons are safely excluded from the property and care is taken to preserve the young ones, keeping them warm and safe in an area that is accessible to the mother when she returns to get them. At Skedaddle, we not only remove raccoons and all the things that accompany them (waste, den material and garbage) from your home but we also raccoon proof your space, making it impossible for the little critters to find their way back inside.

Raccoon proofing is important because it is against the law to relocate a raccoon to a distance greater than one kilometre. Relocation at such short distances almost guarantees that the raccoon will return. With raccoon proofing from Skedaddle, they will find formidable obstructions and have no option but to move on to more accessible spaces.

The humane approach leaves you guilt free as you know that you’ve done all that is in your power to minimize the impact removal and relocation has on the raccoon population of Canada.