hey fellas/ladies.....
i don't hunt. nothing against it, just not for me. i have exceptions though, would off a boar and a good edible bird(turkey?), but that's besides the point. just not a hunter and nobody in my yankee family is either, so just not something i can do with a clean conscience unless ima eat it, which i don't have the means for food storage. but please know i have the upmost repect for hunters that eat their game and even those who donate and even those who don't.
i had an oppossum that would constatly dig through my trash, every night, and leave ahuge mess all over my driveway. him and the squirrells apparently worked together to get a good sized hole chewed into the top of the can for easy in & out access and the mess was every freaking night. so i grabbed a silenced mossberg 702 plinker and filed the possum with 5-6 .22's while it was esaping up a tree, made contact with every shot and it droppped DRT, problem solved right? well.....i already felt bad for ventilating it, bu then to make matters worse, i have this adorable infant possum wandering in my driveway the next morning just sceaming it's little heart out, apparently looking for mommy. so i had to put the infant in a zip-lock bag and give it a good headshot to put it out of it's misery. that was the first and last "kill" for me.
fast-forward rwo years. i live in a subdivion, not tight spaced and private, each plot close to an acre. i have no houses behind me for many hundrd of yards with dense forest. my wife and i have 3 indoor/outdoor cats, small children playing in our woods at all times and neighbors have a couple free-roam anmials themselves. two mornings ago, right sunrise, there were two coyotes in my backyard. i was standing on the porch, about 16+ feet high, and lo and behold. two coyotes making their way from the left side of my house headed toward the woods behid my house. the first coyote was at the treeline and only caught a quick glimps. then second was right freaking next to me, maybe 3 feet to my left and at the bottom of my deck. it didn't register at first, i just though...hey someones dogs fgot out, but i quickly realized what i was looking at. this coyote was very tall, at least taller than i had imagined a coyote and thin and graceul. what made me second guess it was the dark brown coat, almost like a black bear with a small white patch in the middle. its fur was thin but not mangy and you could see it's black skin on it's face.
i started yelling, whistling as load as possible and this animal wouldn't even aknowledge me. just keep its head low scanning back and forth as it slowly made its way to the tree line. i have always heard coyotes in the woods, but this was my first encounter.
so my dillemia, should i leave it be? or run the risk of losing my domestic animals? how common for coyotess to go after cats(my cats re slightly wild, fast nd quick to run up a tree)? do my cats stand a chance if my yard becomes a regular route for these beasts, my cats also do not stay confined to my yard, they also enjoy those woods every chance they can get. if i feel these yotes pose a threat to my pets or even my child and the other very young neighborhood kids? should i KILL it f encountered agin?
my back deck is 2 stories up and my yard is about 100 yards from my closest neighbor on the left, not close at all to neighbor on the right. and at least 400+ yards from the house behind my property. since i will be shooting at an extreme downward angle, surrounded by dense woods, my neighbors are of little concern.
am i within my rights to kill this animal? there are no restricted seasons here, but i am in a residential zoned area. could i claim a threat to my animals? or if i let it be, will it likely not cause me any future issue? what would you do?
sorry for the long post. i just felt i needed to get my full situation acrossed. if ou took the time to read the whole thing. i would love some suggestions. if the answer is baiting and killing, walk me through tha process please. even though i grew up in Michigan with some of the largest most amazing wildlife in the untied states, i was never taught to hunt as a young in'
i don't hunt. nothing against it, just not for me. i have exceptions though, would off a boar and a good edible bird(turkey?), but that's besides the point. just not a hunter and nobody in my yankee family is either, so just not something i can do with a clean conscience unless ima eat it, which i don't have the means for food storage. but please know i have the upmost repect for hunters that eat their game and even those who donate and even those who don't.
i had an oppossum that would constatly dig through my trash, every night, and leave ahuge mess all over my driveway. him and the squirrells apparently worked together to get a good sized hole chewed into the top of the can for easy in & out access and the mess was every freaking night. so i grabbed a silenced mossberg 702 plinker and filed the possum with 5-6 .22's while it was esaping up a tree, made contact with every shot and it droppped DRT, problem solved right? well.....i already felt bad for ventilating it, bu then to make matters worse, i have this adorable infant possum wandering in my driveway the next morning just sceaming it's little heart out, apparently looking for mommy. so i had to put the infant in a zip-lock bag and give it a good headshot to put it out of it's misery. that was the first and last "kill" for me.
fast-forward rwo years. i live in a subdivion, not tight spaced and private, each plot close to an acre. i have no houses behind me for many hundrd of yards with dense forest. my wife and i have 3 indoor/outdoor cats, small children playing in our woods at all times and neighbors have a couple free-roam anmials themselves. two mornings ago, right sunrise, there were two coyotes in my backyard. i was standing on the porch, about 16+ feet high, and lo and behold. two coyotes making their way from the left side of my house headed toward the woods behid my house. the first coyote was at the treeline and only caught a quick glimps. then second was right freaking next to me, maybe 3 feet to my left and at the bottom of my deck. it didn't register at first, i just though...hey someones dogs fgot out, but i quickly realized what i was looking at. this coyote was very tall, at least taller than i had imagined a coyote and thin and graceul. what made me second guess it was the dark brown coat, almost like a black bear with a small white patch in the middle. its fur was thin but not mangy and you could see it's black skin on it's face.
i started yelling, whistling as load as possible and this animal wouldn't even aknowledge me. just keep its head low scanning back and forth as it slowly made its way to the tree line. i have always heard coyotes in the woods, but this was my first encounter.
so my dillemia, should i leave it be? or run the risk of losing my domestic animals? how common for coyotess to go after cats(my cats re slightly wild, fast nd quick to run up a tree)? do my cats stand a chance if my yard becomes a regular route for these beasts, my cats also do not stay confined to my yard, they also enjoy those woods every chance they can get. if i feel these yotes pose a threat to my pets or even my child and the other very young neighborhood kids? should i KILL it f encountered agin?
my back deck is 2 stories up and my yard is about 100 yards from my closest neighbor on the left, not close at all to neighbor on the right. and at least 400+ yards from the house behind my property. since i will be shooting at an extreme downward angle, surrounded by dense woods, my neighbors are of little concern.
am i within my rights to kill this animal? there are no restricted seasons here, but i am in a residential zoned area. could i claim a threat to my animals? or if i let it be, will it likely not cause me any future issue? what would you do?
sorry for the long post. i just felt i needed to get my full situation acrossed. if ou took the time to read the whole thing. i would love some suggestions. if the answer is baiting and killing, walk me through tha process please. even though i grew up in Michigan with some of the largest most amazing wildlife in the untied states, i was never taught to hunt as a young in'
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