Possum

[CoronaBorealis]

I live in Norman. I have chickens and noticed a possum in my backyard tonight, snooping around my chicken pen.

Does anyone know what legal options I have? Shooting it isn’t an option in town. I have a live trap, but what to do with it then? I don’t want this thing eventually digging it’s way into my chicken pen.

 

[dennishoddy]

They will kill your chickens and you have the right to remove them as a threat to your livestock.
Trap and relocate with the live trap. They are furbearers and have regulations about trapping them but all of that goes out the window when killing or threatening livestock.
Contact your local GW and ask them how they would like you to proceed is probably the best option.

 

[SoonerP226]

A .22 pistol is more than enough to end a possum (been there, done that). A .22 air rifle is probably enough to get the job done, and it's quiet enough to do in town.

What part of Norman?

 

[Okie4570]

Easy to catch in a live trap. You'll have shake it out of the trap most likely, they like to hang on. Since you're in town, shake him out, pop him in the head with a hand shovel. May sound cruel but it's instant.

 

[Rustytigwire]

call pd and they will dispatch animal control to you.
or let him out south jenkins near the river.
far west end of rock creek rd ends on the river too.

 

[Snattlerake]

Easy to catch in a live trap. You'll have shake it out of the trap most likely, they like to hang on. Since you're in town, shake him out, pop him in the head with a hand shovel. May sound cruel but it's instant.

Lemmetellyou a shovel will not kill it. They are freakin tough. Ten shovel hits maybe. Machete to the neck.

 

[Okie4570]

Lemmetellyou a shovel will not kill it. They are freakin tough. Ten shovel hits maybe. Machete to the neck.

Haha, you're just not swinging hard enough maybe? Dispatched dozens and dozens of possums and coons like that.

 

[SoonerP226]

Lemmetellyou a shovel will not kill it. They are freakin tough. Ten shovel hits maybe. Machete to the neck.

Well, I can tell you that a .38Spl rat shot to the face at a distance of a few feet will get you a bloody mess of an angry possum which you'll then have to whack with a shovel so you can carry it out to the driveway and dispatch it with an expensive Cor-Bon JHP...

 

[Glock 'em down]

Yet one more reason I'm glad I live out in the sticks. Ironically, there are more possums and racoons in town than out in the country. More people/more food sources.

 

[Hangfire]

@CoronaBorealis actually legal for me to trap and release them or not.......using the cheapest canned cat food for bait and a Havahart live trap, available at Home Depot, I've caught several possums and a few skunks (never got sprayed) around the house and hauled them to the wooded area down by the S. Canadian river and released them unharmed.