Raccoons killing ferals around my neighborhood

dawn harvey · Jun 16, 2013

I need help to try to save the ferals and strays in my neighborhood. There are raccoons killing them and lots of them. I know it's them because I've heard it and I've seen one of them that survived (not for long) that had half his lip ripped off and he was very, very sick. Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do to help keep them safe? I hate seeing this as I try to care for them (the cats) as much as I am able to. I even resorted to putting food out for the coons, but that's still not stopping them so last night I took all the food in and now another cat is gone.

ondine · Jun 16, 2013

Wow. There are many ways of helping. Are you able to build a feeder? There is a type of feeder that cats can jump on but raccoons can't. It is a platform built on one pole. The platform is skirted with metal, so the pole is surrounded by the metal skirt. This keeps the raccoons from climbing it.

You are wise to bring the food in at night, as that is when raccoons are active. By getting the cats on a daytime feeding schedule, you can help them avoid the raccoons.

One note of caution. The raccoon behavior you are describing sounds really odd - have you contacted animal control about it? They may be rabid, which means the cats are in danger from rabies as well.

Make sure all the cats are spayed or neutered, too.

catsallaround · Jun 16, 2013

I know someone who lived with MANY cats and racoons(mobile home park and it was a dumping ground for cats/kittens) had this issue. Rabies did come up for 2 racoons. Has there been any changes to the area that could influence the racoons? Is there an increase in the number of racoons you are seeing(possibly some food source being taken away has made them starved)

Are you only seeing the racoons at night? do they appear normal? Are these cats all spay/neutered? They sound desperate or sick. I have had racoons and cats share a porch and at one point had 2 mom racoons and 7 babies between them come up with alot less issue then your having.

I would search your countys health department to see if there have been any cases

dawn harvey · Jun 16, 2013

Animal control will do nothing here and they are not rabid, they also carry both types of distemper (coons do). If they were rabid they would be sick. Many people think they often have rabies because of some of their behavior, but coons will eat anything they can get and the main thing they carry is distemper, we have had many cats around here end up with that too. I have heard many stories of farmers having many barn cats killed by coons. I am trying to save lives and the food thing you are talking about is a good idea, but that will not keep them safe, as I said I was even feeding the coons. That is not helping. I appreciate your input, but apparently they like the way cats taste. I need help her badly. They only come out at night so there is nobody that could really help, but me.

catsallaround · Jun 16, 2013

Sad thing is there is not alot you can do. Unless you move or kill the racoon(not saying to do this!) they will come back sooner or later or new ones will show up. Anything you build for a cat a racoon will mostl likely figure a way in sooner or later. Best is feeding tables the racoons can not climb on but still how many cats are there vs how many you could build. I have never heard of them being so aggressive unless starving or sick so that is very odd/new to me.

Are these tame cats or all untouchable? Could try to rehome them one by one if any are friendly. If they are not fixed eventually the ones smart/fast will survive and the others die out. Have you looked on craigslist or something local to you and see if anyone has an idea? maybe they would be afraid of a certain smell or something that is local to your coons. They do sell some repellants but not sure if any are for coons and how well they would work with how determined yours are.

We were told years ago by Animal Control to spread mothballs all around our garbage bins. we had 1 confirmed positive on OUR property and another who walked into the lagoon and killed himself who was showing signs. So AC may have been on the more preventive side with that advice seeing there were 2 kids in our house and a few more kids on that block.

dawn harvey · Jun 16, 2013

No there's probably not much I can do. One is a kitten (not a real young one, but still a kitten) I've been trying to keep safe, I even have cat houses for them, but apparently the hot weather is keeping them out of those. There were approx. 12 cats and now I've only seen about 4 tops. Very sad. There's another cat that has lived on my porch for 3 years and so far she has stayed safe, but who knows for how long. The kitten and the other cat are socialized, but nobody wants them and I do not trust Craig's List at all. I had a neighbor that was supposed to take the kitten, but she never came to get it. So, I am the only one around here that really cares. Thank you for all your help. AC in this town is bad, the humane society and the city are not even working together here because my town is so screwed up by the city council. I am really left on my own here.

catsallaround · Jun 16, 2013

Yeah my town is messed up to. so sorry you have to go through this.

Just a different view. I have gotten some pets off craigslist. dog, puppy and some cats. I am a firm believer in a pet if for life. And I have made good on that. Not EVERYONE on craigslist will be bad. The first thing I do when I get a cat is schedule them to go to a spay/neuter clinic(not ONE has been fixed that I have got except my dog) They get vet care as needed.

Anyway you could keep them in at night? garage/shed with air flow? I would still try a racoon repelent but not expect to much from it considering.

catsallaround · Jun 16, 2013

You may want to look into rescues-some will allow you to post on their site or would do the adoption for you if you foster the cat(one at a time). Petfinder.com is agood place to find the many places that are local and may not be advertised/are run from peoples homes.

dawn harvey · Jun 16, 2013

I have no room for anymore. I have 8 animals in my home and no garage. I have all I can on my plate to support them, I just have a very strong belief system that every animal should be able to live. I have the cat houses and that's all the protection I can offer them right now. I realize Craig's list isn't all bad, but a lot of it is. I did give a guy a kitten through them a few years ago and he didn't do one thing I asked, like bring back my animal carrier so I really don't like that site. There are so few left that I think that's out anyway. I just thought I might find some answers here. So many people do not realize that coons kill cats, adults and kittens. I have seen it all and they think the coon is sick because of this, but actually the coon is quite healthy if it is on a killing spree like this one. I am sure there are a few coons involved. I live by the Mississippi River so that right there is probably the problem. I am going to put out food for the coons tonight in order to try to save the ones I have left. That's all I can think of to do.

franksmom · Jun 16, 2013

Ammonia is a really good racoon repellant. The other thing I can think of is build an enclosure around the cat houses that will keep the cats in raccoons out. You could also cat/raccoon proof your fence to keep everyone separated.

franksmom · Jun 16, 2013

Oh also not sure about the laws there but could you trap the violent raccoon and relocate it? This is illegal to do where I live even if you have a raccoon on your property you can only move it 100 feet- the laws might be different where you are and you could relocate the raccoon far away.

dawn harvey · Jun 17, 2013

There is more than one, we don't know how many for sure, but my husband has seen a medium sized one, a very large one and a baby one so far and there are probably more since we do not stay up all night to watch, we have very early schedules. I don't think that would even work - relocating since we are not sure of the numbers. The cats left are on my front porch, the other ones have been gotten where they sleep at night, which are all close to my house. Would ammonia hurt cats? How do I put it around to deter them? Thanks so much for trying to help.

franksmom · Jun 17, 2013

Dawn Harvey said:
There is more than one, we don't know how many for sure, but my husband has seen a medium sized one, a very large one and a baby one so far and there are probably more since we do not stay up all night to watch, we have very early schedules. I don't think that would even work - relocating since we are not sure of the numbers. The cats left are on my front porch, the other ones have been gotten where they sleep at night, which are all close to my house. Would ammonia hurt cats? How do I put it around to deter them? Thanks so much for trying to help.

Ammonia is also used is a deterrent for cats, so they may not like it. What we did was saturate cloths in ammonia and put them on our deck. Playing talk radio is also supposed to discourage them and so are automatic flood lights. Honestly we have been trying to get rid of a family of raccoons for years off our roof deck and these things have worked to varying degrees and currently the raccoons are winning. Our next step in the battle is to try to prevent them from getting on the deck by enclosing it. If you can I do think a a fenced in enclosure would be your best bet to protect the cats.

dawn harvey · Jun 17, 2013

I have a fence in my back yard for my dogs. That wouldn't work for us. No, ammonia doesn't sound like a good idea for the cat's sake. I know raccoons are very smart creatures. That's why this is so frustrating. Thank you for all the tips.

franksmom · Jun 17, 2013

Dawn Harvey said:
I have a fence in my back yard for my dogs. That wouldn't work for us. No, ammonia doesn't sound like a good idea for the cat's sake. I know raccoons are very smart creatures. That's why this is so frustrating. Thank you for all the tips.

You could cat proof the fence which should also keep the raccoons out and the cats in.

catsallaround · Jun 17, 2013

And if the dogs are going to chase cats you could put the cats into the yard at night and just walk the dogs as needed for potty. Or use a tie out cable tied to something near door so they can just run and potty and come back in

dawn harvey · Jun 17, 2013

Well, I could only use it at night for the cats because my dogs like their yard and I do walk them in the mornings. How do I cat proof a fence? I didn't know you could do that. Thanks, Dawn

ondine · Jun 17, 2013

There are professional systems for sale but you can also do it yourself. Wire fencing bent in a "u" shape, attached the length of the fence works. The cat's can't get past the wire fencing because it will droop when they climb it. The same will happen to the raccoons when they try to come in over it. Google "cat proof fencing". Lots of ideas and products will come up

sugarsandz · Jun 18, 2013

When I lived in KS we had a feral cat colony on the university campus that coexisted with a large amount of raccoons and sometimes a possum here or there. They would even be in the same dumpsters at the same times, my husband and I would drive out to the campus because we liked watching them at night. Even when there were young involved the raccoon wouldn't keep to far away from the cats but female cats with kittens were a bit more cautious of the coons. One night we counted 23 raccoons many which were young with their mothers looking for bugs around the ground lights, I was amazed at how bold they were, they would pop up out of the campus sewers a few feet from people walking but didn't seem afraid.

I would still be concerned with rabies how ever small the chance. Could it be that there is a defensive mother around? It seems like that time of year where the babies start journeying with their moms on scavenging trips. I hope your problem gets fixed without more cats being injured or killed, it's sad when it is beyond our control and the locals won't help. I wish I could give you something helpful but my experiences with cats and raccoons has been the opposite of this case.

If you see one of the raccoons during the day I'd call the health department or animal control right away as that's not a great sign in many cases.

franksmom · Jun 18, 2013

sugarsandz said:
When I lived in KS we had a feral cat colony on the university campus that coexisted with a large amount of raccoons and sometimes a possum here or there. They would even be in the same dumpsters at the same times, my husband and I would drive out to the campus because we liked watching them at night. Even when there were young involved the raccoon wouldn't keep to far away from the cats but female cats with kittens were a bit more cautious of the coons. One night we counted 23 raccoons many which were young with their mothers looking for bugs around the ground lights, I was amazed at how bold they were, they would pop up out of the campus sewers a few feet from people walking but didn't seem afraid.

I would still be concerned with rabies how ever small the chance. Could it be that there is a defensive mother around? It seems like that time of year where the babies start journeying with their moms on scavenging trips. I hope your problem gets fixed without more cats being injured or killed, it's sad when it is beyond our control and the locals won't help. I wish I could give you something helpful but my experiences with cats and raccoons has been the opposite of this case.

If you see one of the raccoons during the day I'd call the health department or animal control right away as that's not a great sign in many cases.

Unfortunately, animal control often does nothing when it comes to racoons, at least where I live. We have violent racoons living on our porch and not only will animal control not come we can't even hire a company to trap them because they have now been declared a protected species (despite the fact they outnumber people in our large city). It really irks me that animal control traps and kill cats but they will not even sterilize racoons nor let people use humane traps on personal property to relocate them.

Raccoons killing ferals around my neighborhood

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