[OT] Horrible Experience - Rabid Possum

Sherry wrote:
On May 6, 8:35 pm, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"Pat" wrote in message

...

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?
You could have gotten it into the 5 g bucket and called the Police or for
further information.

Coud have, would have, should have. Hindsight is crystal clear, and
even
clearer when we are judging others and weren't even there. I can't
even
imagine trying to herd a *hostile* oppossum into a 5-gallon bucket.
They
have some wicked teeth. I'm all about protecting wildlife, but I would
not try it.
Come on, Kelly. Don't make her feel worse than she already does, okay?

Sherry

Kelly has always been an expert at that - one reason he/she/it mostly
resides in my "kill file"!

catlady wrote:
On May 6, 8:46 pm, wrote:
Kelly Greene wrote:

"Pat" wrote in message

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

You could have gotten it into the 5 g bucket and called the Police or for
further information.

I think you need to reread the post. They *tried* to do that, but weren't
successful. Since the possum was rabid (or appeared to be), they weren't
about to take any chances on having contact with it. That put a few limits
on how they could approach that problem. They probably don't have a couple
of hazmat suits just hanging around the house.

They managed to choke the poor thing to death with no problem. If they
could do that they could have gotten it into a bucket or even a
carrier. I read the original post and Pat stated that before she went
outside she heard loud noises. That is a clear indicator that there
was some sort of incident as opossums are not known to run around
making loud noises. Just because she didn't see another animal doesn't
mean that there wasn't one- it probably bolted when it heard her door
open. If an opossum can get in her carport, then any animal can get in
and just because she might not see it doesn't mean it wasn't there.
There are a lot of animals that roam in backyards, etc. at night that
we never see but they are certainly there. The behavior of the opossum
falls right in line with how it would respond when threatened and
AFAIC it was killed for no good reason, and in a horrific and
unnecessary way.

Why do some of our posters here find it so easy to criticize the actions
of others, when they weren't even present at the event? People who live
in semi-urban areas are constantly being warned about rabid "wild"
critters - more usually bats and squirrels, because they are more
common, but 'possums and raccoons make that list, too.

Pat wrote:

As to choking the possum, Dave made a noose, attached to a long stick.
With another long stick, I herded the possum toward the noose. Dave
then picked up the stick, and the possum's own weight slowly cut off
its air supply.


Sounds similar to what you see all the time on "Animal Planet" cop
shows, when the officers are dealing with a hoarder's houseful of
more-or-less feral cats or dogs. (They TRY not to injure them, but if
the animal may be rabid, and you have any common sense, you're not going
to take chances!)

"Pat" wrote in message
...
While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

you did what you thought best. once upon a time one of my cockerels was
really ill, suddenly and i knew he could not recover. i wanted my neighbour
to do the deed as i knew he'd have no problem but he came home really drunk
so i had to do it myself.
i hated it. i hope i will never have to do it again.

On May 7, 4:29*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
so i had to do it myself.
i hated it. i hope i will never have to do it again.-

I've done it with a rabbit-one of our old stud bucks had a sudden
massive stroke my dad wasn't around and he was in such terible
distress that I wanted to spare him a trip to the vet so I broke his
neck (There's a way to do it very quickly and cleanly he died pretty
much instantly) never want to do anything like that again

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

"Lesley Madigan" wrote in message
...

On May 7, 4:29 pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
so i had to do it myself.
i hated it. i hope i will never have to do it again.-

I've done it with a rabbit-one of our old stud bucks had a sudden
massive stroke my dad wasn't around and he was in such terible
distress that I wanted to spare him a trip to the vet so I broke his
neck (There's a way to do it very quickly and cleanly he died pretty
much instantly) never want to do anything like that again

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Unfortunately, Pat described a really painful way to die--strangulation, by
lifting the animal from a noose on the end of a pole. That is a slow,
terrifying death.

MaryL

On 5/4/2011 12:05 PM, Arthur Shapiro wrote:
Art (former member of the Oppossum Society of the United States)

After reading part of this thread, I was just reading the FAQs from the
osus site. I've seen them here many times, but only when I was feeding
stray cats. I don't leave out food anymore, and I haven't seen opposums.

I was lurking and this topic grabbed my attention.
I read that possums are resistant to rabies.
I did not know that until last year. I just assumed they were nocturnal
as well until I saw one in the daytime and it was not afraid of me. it
just wanted to sleep in my shed and eat cat food . I called the local
police to come and get it because a receptionist at the vets said the
possum was probably rabid. I felt really bad afterwards because I know
it was shot.

Zoe Kate Gibson wrote:

I was lurking and this topic grabbed my attention.
I read that possums are resistant to rabies.
I did not know that until last year. I just assumed they were nocturnal
as well until I saw one in the daytime and it was not afraid of me. it
just wanted to sleep in my shed and eat cat food . I called the local
police to come and get it because a receptionist at the vets said the
possum was probably rabid. I felt really bad afterwards because I know
it was shot.

If the possum was shot, here are two possible reasons: (1) animal
control is uninformed about possums being resistant to rabies, or
(2) possums *are* capable of getting rabies and they didn't want
to take chances.

If the first is true - if even animal control can't get their facts
straight about this, then I think people should lay off Pat about it,
because evidently it's a very widespread myth.

Or maybe that possum wasn't shot?

Joyce

--
May the great galactic kitten always purr you to sleep.

On 10 May 2011 06:58:13 GMT, wrote:

Zoe Kate Gibson wrote:

I was lurking and this topic grabbed my attention.
I read that possums are resistant to rabies.
I did not know that until last year. I just assumed they were nocturnal
as well until I saw one in the daytime and it was not afraid of me. it
just wanted to sleep in my shed and eat cat food . I called the local
police to come and get it because a receptionist at the vets said the
possum was probably rabid. I felt really bad afterwards because I know
it was shot.

If the possum was shot, here are two possible reasons: (1) animal
control is uninformed about possums being resistant to rabies, or
(2) possums *are* capable of getting rabies and they didn't want
to take chances.

If the first is true - if even animal control can't get their facts
straight about this, then I think people should lay off Pat about it,
because evidently it's a very widespread myth.

Or maybe that possum wasn't shot?

Joyce

I did some research when I first found a possum in my yard. I wrote
about it here in a thread called "The THING in the backyard". It
apparently is possible for them to get rabies but it is very rare.
Possums also get blamed for all kinds of things that are likey done by
raccoons because people see the possums but not the raccoons.

There was a possum under my deck for three days a few weeks ago.
During the day it was curling up on an old plastic bag, sleeping away.
My cats just ignored it when they were back there. I put out some cut
up oranges and some other stuff I had hanging around, and it left
after the fourth day, but it ate all the oranges. Supposedly they stay
in one place a few days and then move on, and that's just what this
one did.