The ministry of the environment and parks controls all aspects of wildlife law. They also control all aspects of pesticide use, rodenticide poisons and even trapping and gaming. Trapping is a specific type of work that involves a process called live trapping. Live trapping is when a humane trap is used to capture an animal using bait. The trap is not meant to hurt the animal but it can and that is why all hunters and trappers need a special license to do their work. If you have a frustrating animal on your property you should know that unless you hire a licensed trapper there is no legal way to get the animal off the property. A professional, licensed and trained wildlife trapper is not cheap and even if you hire one to get a raccoon off your property it won’t be long before another raccoon shows up. Many people will think it is the same raccoon but that is just an optical illusion. The raccoons are different because a relocated raccoon is very likely to die. Raccoons limit themselves, throughout their entire lives to about one square kilometre of space. This is their zone, their territory. They will fight off other raccoons to keep it theirs. If you take this raccoon out of that square kilometre and put it somewhere outside of that area the result will be a raccoon who has no idea where it is or how to get food. It will rapidly die. This is why an unlicensed person cannot live trap or kill a wild animal. If you even harm one you could be charged with animal cruelty by the SPCA. Instead of trying to get rid of the raccoon, make your property an unenjoyable place to be. Take away the things the raccoon wants and force them to leave.
Most people do not realize that raccoons only really come to your property for three reasons. The first is the most severe, females that are pregnant and males that are cold in the winter will try to break into your attic or walls and live there for the winter, or possibly longer. Some people have had animals in their attic for years, decades even, whole generations developing in the attic. This can destroy the actual attic and can cost tens of thousands of dollars to remediate. This is why exclusion is better than trapping. Trying to trap a raccoon who is living in your attic is difficult and will often result in the starvation of the children if the raccoon is a female. Instead, try using a method the pros use to humanely remove a raccoon. You can go to the hardware store and buy steel mesh and a device called a one-way door. This should be a steel cage with an opening at one end and a spring locking door on the other. The door is held in place by a powerful steel frame and allows the animal to vacate through the door but will be unable to reenter it. This is so effective you can have the animal out of the attic in just a couple of days. But that is not all you need to do. You must also go up to the attic and look for raccoon babies. If you see them and they are blind and immobile then you will need to pick them up and put them in a box and place them by the one-way door on the ground so the mother can come out and take them to a new location.
