Thread: Angry Possums.... in a cage

All I have ever done is pull the possum by the tail with right hand and hold cage with left hand, I've never known a possum to grip that well that it couldn't be ripped from the cage. Once out of the cage hang possum so front paws touch the ground as there is less chance of it climbing back up your arm, use the usual club to the head, if working in residential area where one can be observed then just place instep of boot over ribcage, put pressure on it until it breathes no more. If possums are caught and then get wet with rain, whether in cage or trap I take them home alive to dry them out before killing, always good fun getting them into a sack especially when there are already some in it...horse never seemed that keen carting live possums in a sack on their back.

@DavidGunn I have actually tried yanking them out with brute force in the past. Got rather put off after a pretty decent sized buck possum unexpectedly let go, and came fanging out of the cage arse first at a great rate of knots. I slipped over in the mud, possum hooked onto my other arm, I screamed like a school girl. Faithful old lab jumped on both of us, possum scarpers in the confusion leaving me covered in mud, stinking of possum with some decent claw marks streaming blood down my arm. Not my finest hour.

Just do what Flyblown does?

What would a vet who worked for the SPCA do who was into opossum trapping do ? Take the cage down to the local DOC office and let the live opossum go?

I heard of one chap in a rural area who feeds the local opossum by his house with food scraps and when he has befriend it enough he uses a stainless steel butchers glove to grab it, then he shears it for it's fur and then he lets it go. A win win situation all round. The opossum gets free food and lodgings and the farmer gets the fur to sell. A renewable resource out come all round?

What is animal cruelty? We all know about "blunt force trauma" in pest control in NZ.

Pest control by drowning or using snares in NZ? How many people out there who have got tip trap mouse / rat trap and then drop the animal it into a bucket of water to drown the "pest"?