So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

I have a few cages of varying sizes. I have been thinking of using them again, but did not have much luck the last time around. I caught one of the four and a lot of the neighbors' cats. The last time I put one in an area in the front yard that they were destroying (30 separate areas of peeled lawn) someone ran off with cage. The raccoons were big but not that big. Although, they are pretty smart. The last two nights, I turned off the water features. If that does not do it, out come the traps.

What are the legal and practical restrictions on, um, more permanent means of wildlife management?

 

[tonyb]

And that's why whenever I'm in NYC I never bring along anything I can't afford to lose.

My introduction to City Ways came when I was living in California. Someone had given me a rattly old second-hand bicycle, since I didn't drive at the time, and I parked it behind my building while I went down to Thrifty Drug to buy a lock. When I got back -- not ten minutes later -- it was already gone.

But, again, this is nothing new. Light-Fingered Larry and Danny the Dip were even more rampant in the Era than they are today. A feature of every lunchroom, diner, and cheap cafe was the sign on the wall near the coatrack: WATCH YOUR HAT AND COAT, and women knew better than to leave their handbags untended for even a moment. As the old Berle gag went, "...and while I was watching my hat and coat, somebody stole my dinner!"

Of course, Berle stole that gag from Richy Craig Jr, which just goes to prove the point.

I figure that a certain percentage of the population is given to thievery. That’s as true in a one stop-light town as it is in NYC. A person’s likelihood of being victimized increases somewhat proportionally with population density simply because there are more people there, honest or not.

There are other cultural factors, of course. Anonymity is greater in densely populated cities, so blending into the crowd with a stolen book bag is easier there than in, say, tiny Brooklyn, Washington, which has no stop lights at all. (And really, you don’t want to get caught ripping off a guy who fells trees for a living.)

Much as I don’t advocate the practice, I can see how lopping off the hands of thieves is a strong disincentive. I expect kids, especially those from financially struggling circumstances, to go through a light-fingered phase. But a person who hasn’t outgrown it by age 16 or so is someone I’d rather not know.

If only they understood what their thieving ways are costing them.

 

[MisterCairo]

A woman in London, Ontario, fed up with people breaking the windows of her work truck, keeps the doors unlocked and nothing of value inside. But she knew people were looking around inside, so she set up a motion-activated camera and light.

And caught four people breaking in over a day and a bit:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-woodfield-vehicle-break-ins-1.4757703

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to have people sleeping in my car at night. I didn't so much mind that as the cigarette butts they left in the ashtray. Blech.

 

[tonyb]

I used to have people sleeping in my car at night. I didn't so much mind that as the cigarette butts they left in the ashtray. Blech.

At least they used the ashtray.

 

[Touchofevil]

What are the legal and practical restrictions on, um, more permanent means of wildlife management?

Not legal. I no longer live in the country so whatever method I would use to eradicate them would need to be quietly done. I have not seen any sign of them since I began turning the water features off at night. I am sure that they are around but hopefully they will get bored and go back to the neighbors down the street.

 

[Zombie_61]

What are the legal and practical restrictions on, um, more permanent means of wildlife management?

Based on what little I know about such things, I'd have to agree with Touchofevil--not legal. Around here it depends on the city/county laws and the type of wildlife in question, but for the most part it seems you can be prosecuted to some degree for the "permanent removal" of almost anything unless you can prove the act was done in order to protect yourself or a loved one (including pets) from an attack. Non-lethal/harmful deterrents are allowed, but it's always best to check with your local Animal Control authorities before taking any action that might put you in legal hot water.

I used to have people sleeping in my car at night. I didn't so much mind that as the cigarette butts they left in the ashtray. Blech.

Based on stories I've heard of such squatters using people's cars as lavatories, I'd say you're lucky they only left cigarette butts behind.

 

[tonyb]

Based on what little I know about such things, I'd have to agree with Touchofevil--not legal. Around here it depends on the city/county laws and the type of wildlife in question, but for the most part it seems you can be prosecuted to some degree for the "permanent removal" of almost anything unless you can prove the act was done in order to protect yourself or a loved one (including pets) from an attack. Non-lethal/harmful deterrents are allowed, but it's always best to check with your local Animal Control authorities before taking any action that might put you in legal hot water.

Based on stories I've heard of such squatters using people's cars as lavatories, I'd say you're lucky they only left cigarette butts behind.

In the locales I’ve called home, discharging firearms within the municipal boundaries is illegal. Poisoning of rats and mice is legal. Couldn’t tell you about doing same to raccoons or possums or foxes or other such critters. And I don’t know how safe or effective it would be.

Seattle is thick with raccoons (and rats, alas, and possums), thanks in no small part to all the wooded habitat, although I have spotted them smack in the middle of downtown. Adaptable little buggers, for sure. I recall when my brother’s kid was little his keeping a pair of old pots on the sun porch for the kid to bang together before letting herself onto the front porch, so as to scare off the raccoons rather than cornering them.

Oh, and if you see cute little juvenile raccoons? Don’t approach them, even if you believe they are orphaned. Tonya Harding has nothing on a momma raccoon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had a raccoon in my kitchen once -- it had gotten in the cat door and was sitting on the floor with a can of Crisco in its lap, cheerfully shoveling handfuls of the stuff into its face, and did not appreciate me chasing it out with a broom. It proceeded to pull all my washing off the clothesline and throw it on the ground to demonstrate its unhappiness.

Porcupines are even worse, though. One of the kids has a couple of pit bulls who made the mistake of trying to get chummy with a porkie and they both got snoots full of quills for their trouble. She was shaken awake in the middle of the night by screams of pain and blood all over her floor as the porcupine waddled off.

 

[tonyb]

For almost 20 years I lived about a mile as the bird flies from downtown. I looked out my back door and saw skyscrapers.

And raccoons, often. On those rare warm nights I would plop myself down on a chair just inside that door and watch the juvenile raccoons play on my deck. The paid me little mind at all.

Apartment-dwelling friends kept a large garden in my back yard. I’ll never forget the day a dump truck deposited a load of compost back there. Out came the raccoons, in broad daylight, to investigate. Raccoon nip, is what it was. It drew them like Shriners to a Nevada cathouse.

 

[Touchofevil]

I have seen an angry mother raccoon and they are not cute. I turned a hose on two who were facing off in my driveway with no effect on either. They looked at me and then continued squabbling.
Mother and her youngsters got treed next door by the neighbor's dogs and took their displeasure out on my front yard later that night. It is funny what they can do, but not funny when it happens. As for possums, we occasionally have one, but it keeps to itself. The squirrel population has decreased, but they never caused any problems. We have more critters in town then we ever had in the country.

 

[Zombie_61]

I think I've seen more wildlife since my wife and I moved into my old neighborhood 20 years ago than I did while I was growing up here. A couple of coyotes (or maybe the same one twice), some deer in the local cemetery in the early hours of the morning, the occasional opossum or two, but I've only seen one raccoon so far. She was far more concerned about finding a way to get her babies out of the gutter and onto the sidewalk where she was, so she didn't pay any attention to us.

Squirrels are a relatively common sight here because they like to eat the oranges on or under the tree in our back yard. Nasty little buggers, squirrels. They'll climb to what they think is a safe perch, then angrily bark at us and/or our dog if we've interrupted their meal. One day I barked back at one, mimicking the sound it was making. It barked, I barked, it barked, I barked; the confused expression on it's little face was priceless.

 

[Fading Fast]

...It proceeded to pull all my washing off the clothesline and throw it on the ground to demonstrate its unhappiness.....

That's pretty funny and shows a bit of complex thinking on the raccoon's part.

 

[Haversack]

About fifteen years ago coyotes began reappearing in San Francisco. Most have come across the golden Gate Bridge from Marin and some from up the Peninsula. Most of the larger parks, (Golden Gate, MacLaren, the Presidio now all have active packs. During kit season areas of the parks are closed because the coyotes become territorial and aggressive. The current doctrine is that humans have to adapt to the coyotes' presence. Whether that will also be the rule regarding the mountain lions that have showing up in the neighborhoods around the Presidio for the past couple years is a question that authorities prefer not to answer

 

[ChiTownScion]

At our former house I encountered a raccoon on our slightly raised wood deck. Tried to scare him off by banging a pot with a spoon... and he shot me one of those, "You have GOT to be kidding me.." looks.

He did finally waddle away never to return: perhaps he feared dying of laughter.

 

[dh66]

One of the amenities of residing in the great state of Alabama is that it's year round open season on trash pandas, possums, coyotes, and feral pigs, so they dont often make pests of themselves for too long. The only restriction is that you can't use dogs to hunt them during turkey season.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[tonyb]

About fifteen years ago coyotes began reappearing in San Francisco. Most have come across the golden Gate Bridge from Marin and some from up the Peninsula. Most of the larger parks, (Golden Gate, MacLaren, the Presidio now all have active packs. During kit season areas of the parks are closed because the coyotes become territorial and aggressive. The current doctrine is that humans have to adapt to the coyotes' presence. Whether that will also be the rule regarding the mountain lions that have showing up in the neighborhoods around the Presidio for the past couple years is a question that authorities prefer not to answer

Coyotes are proliferating. Their range has expanded dramatically. I’ve spotted them in broad daylight. It appears their numbers are now such that some have been relegated to the dayshift.

Cougar attacks are rare, but not unheard of. A mountain biking fellow met his end at the claws and teeth of a cougar east of Seattle a couple-three months back.

 

[Touchofevil]

Jerks who leave their cigarette butts on the ground out in fron of my house. Heck, anyone who leaves their garbage anywhere but where it is supposed to be.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. Springtime in my neighborhood is when you go out and clean up an entire winter's worth of Burger King wrappers, cigarette butts, beer cans, condom wrappers, "nip" bottles, and other bits of unnecessary flotsam that has been dumped by passers-by over the past six months. Ah Maine, The Way Life Should Be.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, this one really sets my bile to perking:

https://www.boston.com/cars/car-culture/2018/07/26/the-ordinary-license-plates-days-may-be-numbered

Now, I couldn't care less about the "tradition" of the license plate -- but I do care very much about being turned, ultimately, and against my will, into a mobile billboard for the Boys, or to having my whereabouts monitored and my travel habits monetized and sold to said Boys for purposes I do not, have never, and will never endorse. I refuse to carry a cell phone or any other mobile device for just this reason, and there's no way I'm going to sit still and have this kind of invasion of my right not to be sold like a commodity for the greater glory of Private Gain foisted upon me. Yes, I know it's just a "test" and "voluntary" and other such weasel language, but the only way to keep the camel out of the tent is to stomp hard upon its nose as soon as it pokes under the cloth.

I wonder how these Wonder Plates would fare if some street activist were to pour half a cup of brine into their workings? Just a thought.