If you’ve got a wild animal that is destroying your property or threatening your pets, and you are not a killer, here’s some advice for how you can get rid of that critter. This is the final column in a four-part series titled What can I shoot and when can I shoot it?
The third column is the most important, spelling out what you can shoot and when you can shoot it. I will include that column at the end of this one in case you missed this important information. Essentially, you can’t shoot anything without a hunting license, with this exception: “a person may lawfully kill, or cause to be killed, any wild animal or wild turkey, night or day, found in the act of attacking, worrying or wounding that person’s domestic animals or domestic birds or destroying that person’s property.” Any animals killed under this statute must be reported within 12 hours to the Maine Warden Service.
But if you are not a killer, help is nearby in the form of an Animal Damage Control agent, who oftentimes can merely capture and move the critter to another place, instead of killing it. ADC agents are available throughout the state, for a fee, to take care of your wild critter problems. After my last column in this series, I got this message from one of those agents.
Saw your recent article in the BDN about taking squirrel and other nuisance species from around the house. I’m glad you discouraged home owners from taking the law into their own hands as most do so without a hunting license, trapping license and without Warden approval and give little thought to the risk to the animal’s wellbeing or themselves.
There are professionals in our area that will help remove or exclude nuisance species that are found to be legitimately causing damage in and around the home. We work as agents of the state to determine what (if any) action needs to be taken. I’ve been doing this formally for the last 4 years in a range extending up to 50 miles from Bangor (on FB at McKnight Wildlife Control, LLC).
The Department has available a list and gives our name and contact information to those that make inquiry and should be discouraging “handle it yourself” scenarios in all but the simplest circumstances.
Thanks, Chip McKnight, McKnight Wildlife Control, LLC, 207-951-6513
Chip is right. In the Wildlife section of the website of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in the subsection titled Wildlife-Human Issues, you’ll find a short list of agents, although it is not complete. You can probably get a list of agents in your area by contacting DIF&W’s regional office, also listed in that section.
Good luck!
What can I shoot and when can I shoot it? Part three
It was a red squirrel. Honest!
Please allow me to make a correction. When I wrote in this series that I shot gray squirrels that were eating Linda’s bird seed, I meant red squirrels. Turns out it’s illegal to shoot gray squirrels, except with a hunting license and during the gray squirrel hunting season. And even then, it’s illegal to bait them.
Special thanks today to Warden John MacDonald who answered my questions about this intriguing issue. In response to this series, the Maine Warden Service also posted information about what you can shoot and when, on its website in the Frequently Asked Questions section, and you can read that here.
Kill them all!
Well, not really. But you can shoot red squirrels, woodchucks, and porcupines, anytime, anyplace, except on Sunday, without having to report that to the Maine Warden Service, as long as you have a hunting license. That’s really fortunate, because while talking to Corporal MacDonald, I confessed to shooting all three of those critters.
If you don’t have a hunting license you cannot shoot those animals, or any others, except in the situations explained below.
Porcupines are tree killers and I don’t like to see them eating the trees on my woodlot. So I shoot every porcupine I see there. They are tough to kill, for sure. In Part Two of this series, I told you about seeing a porcupine on the front lawn last fall, hunkered down next to one of our apple trees, and loading a shell into my .22 rifle, walking right up to it, aiming for the back of its head, and shooting it. To my amazement it sauntered away, crossed the road, and continued on into the woods. Yes, they are some old tough! But I am relieved to know I didn’t break the law in trying to kill that prickly beast.
Likewise, woodchucks are forbidden, by Linda, from getting anywhere near her gardens, and red squirrels are particularly destructive if and when they get into your buildings. Those critters are not allowed to live anywhere near our home. Thank goodness I have a hunting license!
Other Annoying Critters
So, what about all those other annoying critters (gray squirrels, for example)? Can you kill any of them, outside of the hunting seasons?
Well, only if they are attacking your domestic animals or destroying your property. Here is the applicable law:
12401 – Attacking domestic animals or destroying property
Except as provided in sections 12402 and 12404, a person may lawfully kill, or cause to be killed, any wild animal or wild turkey, night or day, found in the act of attacking, worrying or wounding that person’s domestic animals or domestic birds or destroying that person’s property. A person who kills a wild animal or wild turkey by authority of this section shall report the incident to the Maine Warden Service as provided in section 12402, subsections 3 and 4. [2003, c. 414, Pt. A, §2 (NEW); 2003, c. 614, §9 (AFF).]
Corporate MacDonald reported that the word “worrying” has never been defined. I asked if that would allow me to shoot any wild animal that, I noticed, was worrying my cat. I guess not!
“Under the statutes that deal specifically with Wildlife Causing Damage/Nuisance and Damage to Crops/Orchards (12401 & 12402 respectively),” said Macdonald, “unless an animal behaves in a manner to constitute killing them under the damage or nuisance laws, they cannot otherwise be killed without a hunting license. Also, you can add coyote to the list of animals (in addition to red squirrels, porcupines, woodchucks), that have no closed hunting season; with the exception of Sunday of course.”
Well, of course, how could I forget that we can’t hunt on Sundays? Ironically, we can kill those four critters on Sunday, or any critter that is damaging our property or worrying our domestic animals.
So, you can shoot wild animals without a hunting license if they are damaging your property or worrying your domestic animals. That does not include gray squirrels that are eating your bird seed! Good to know.
Please note that if you kill any wild critter, except a red squirrel, woodchuck, or porcupine, you must report that to the Maine Warden Service within 12 hours. You would be correct if you think that no one has ever done that (except for big game animals), or been prosecuted for failing to do that. But that is the law. And I don’t want you to be a law-breaker.
About the only time people have been prosecuted for shooting wild critters illegally (except for big game animals), the complaint has come from a neighbor who didn’t like someone shooting so close to their house. I told you one story like that in the last column in this series.
Predation Permits
I’m hoping to write a column about predation permits sometime soon. Those permits go to farmers whose crops are being damaged by wild animals. The farmers can kill those animals themselves, but must report those kills to the Maine Warden Service. And if they want others to do the killing, they must get predation permits that, among other things, require that all but two of the wild animals be donated to the Hunters for the Hungry Program.
Tasty Critters
Tom Seymour, the author of the Maine Wildlife column in The Maine Sportsman, wrote his February column about gray squirrels. “Every time I see a gray squirrel I picture it skinned, quartered and friend to perfection,” wrote Tom. “That seems somehow unfair, but it’s beyond my ability to change things. On the other hand, gray squirrels taste so sweet and good it surprises me that everyone doesn’t drool at the very thought of a platter of fried squirrel.” Hmmm. I assume Tom knows he can only kill those tasty critters during the gray squirrel hunting season, now ended. Maybe he’s eating red squirrels now!