Garbage Can Thief

Around here you can have just about anything trying to get in the garbage and mostly it is dogs or coyotes. I live in a city, but we have quite a few wild animals that venture into the yards. One year it was skunks, and another a possum. So far, we don't have raccoons but I imagine it is because of all the dogs and coyotes. I doubt seriously the raccoon was rabid because if they are they will attack anything and it is pretty obvious when they are sick. However, even if they aren't diseased they are dangerous as all wild animals are. Around here the state wildlife department encourages you to contact either the city animal control or them to get rid of critters who make themselves a nuisance or contact a private contractor specializing in animal control. This year because of the drought conditions, a bear even found its way into the city south of my house and the wildlife people had to come tranquilize it and take it away to be relocated. They may be fun to watch, but I sure wouldn't even go near them or try to handle the matter myself. There are worse things than rabid animals, like prairie dogs that carry bubonic plague which can be transmitted to dogs, squirrels and other animals besides people. Good luck with being rid of the critter. Sounds like you are healing up nicely! Glad to hear that!

oh that is so funny. they are so cute but such pests. and they act like people when foraging for food. one of my friends made a pet of one when it was a baby. once when it was older, i came to his house and he had it under a crate as punishment. i felt so sorry for it. it was crying like a little baby putting it little hands thru the bars. he said it had opened a jar of his pickles and ate every one!

We used to have HUGE raccoons when we lived further up the California cost. They were not shy about coming up to the house and trying to get into the cans. They were really bad. We had to put brings on top of the lid to try to persuade them to not open the lips on those huge plastic bin type garbage cans.

Im guessing the raccoon was dragging it around because it couldnt get the lid off. We had 3 very large raccoons that used to get into our garbage cans every night and tear the bags open and make a huge mess. The lids on our garbage cans didnt fit on very tightly and they would shake and pull the lids and get them off. So I started putting big rocks on top of the aluminum garbage cans and then they couldnt get into my cans any longer. I got different garbage cans recently though and they havent bothered these cans so far.

nailtech we u sed to have a large raccoon who came in the night and started on one end of the row of corn and keepright on going. cany little fellow. when w e lived in Tustin we had a thief who came down from the hills and tipped over our garbage can and dug out what he wanted eat. I finally caught mr possum one night and he growled at me as he slunk off with a large piece of old meat happy I guess in its rank odor. lol. he did this almost every night no matter what we dido He was large for a possum too and looked old with grayed fur.