08/14/2026
So a neighbor looks out her window and sees her neighbor with a raccoon trap in his backyard and a raccoon is trapped. So instead of knocking on the neighbor's door and inquiring of what's going on she decides to take a video and post it on a Long Island wildlife group site. Yeah you can only imagine what that turned into. Half the comments sounded like I was listening to eco-terrorists. "Demanding the address so they can jump the fence and storm the property. Let's threaten the homeowner to while we're at it." It's illegal it's in violation." Meanwhile nobody knows exactly what's going on or why it was even being trapped or how long it was in that trap. New York State DEC allows homeowners to trap for themselves but they have to euthanize it. From what was being shown on that video you can't tell any laws were being broken. But everybody wants to act like they're wildlife law enforcement. So my one and only response was call New York state DEC region one in Stony Brook. But we all know how that turns out when you're dealing with rescues and rehabbers. The DEC is the last people they want to speak to because the dec doesn't fit their narrative. The dec will come right out and explain what the homeowners rights are putting human safety and welfare above the animals safety and welfare. So yes you guessed it that's exactly who they spoke to. A Long Island rescue supposably knocks on the door gets permission to enter the property and releases the animal from the trap. Supposably they also went on to educate the homeowner on what they can do in the future so that they don't have to hurt the animal. I don't need to hear the conversation I know from past experience the homeowner listened to nothing but a load of lies along with hazardous information that can harm human life. These are the same people that are trying to talk homeowners into leaving raccoons up in their attic until they evict themselves. I even reposted their ridiculous meme on this page. I'm also not condoning animal cruelty or breaking the law in any way. So let me come right out and say if you see a hunter, trapper, fisherman, homeowner, animal rescue or rehabber breaking any environmental laws call New York State DEC region 1 Stony Brook. 631-444-0200 I encourage you to make the call you have every right to. What you do not have the right to do is act like an echo-terrorist. Trespassing and making threats. That's the blatant ridiculousness that makes nobody take them seriously. Now if I would have spoken to the homeowner I would have spoken to him about trap placement. Maybe find a spot where it's not sitting in the direct sunlight all day also since you made it to social media you might want to think about not placing traps where your neighbors can video tape it. Anchoring your trap would be nice also so other raccoons can't come along tip it over and help him get out. Now since the raccoon was released in the backyard maybe the neighbor that took the video can now experience a destroyed home and property from raccoons seeing what it's like.
