Yes, that would be a raccoon. What looks like a cute, cuddly stuffed animal is truly a vicious predator. I was amazed the first time we discovered the leftover kill from when a raccoon took one of our chickens. I didn’t realize they were such a threat!

Normally we can protect our flocks from predators by locking them all up at night. However, over the last week a raccoon had been out hunting during the day. Our neighbors noticed it first at about 2pm in the afternoon at their bird feeders. We saw it the next day around 3pm eating at our dog’s food dish. Next was one of our turkeys. The big tom bird battled hard with the raccoon to save his girl, but paid the price a few days later.

Then we were out to stop this menace. We set a trap, but couldn’t catch it. We stopped letting out our one turkey and our laying chickens. We couldn’t put our meat birds outside and therefore they have been living in their chick pens. This raccoon was terrorizing our farm and concerning all the neighbors.

However, today he was finally taken care of. It took the effort of three neighbors, but this raccoon had to go. She had lost her fear of humans and was threatening all our pets and livestock. It is amazing what havoc one small animal can do!