When you encounter an animal in or around your home, you might not know how to go about removing it. Your first thought might be to call your local humane society, wildlife rehabilitation centre, or SPCA. After all, they deal with animals, right? Though the humane society might take action to remove small critters or wildlife from residential homes, it is not always the first call you should make.
Here are common scenarios when you should call the humane society, and when you should call a wildlife control service instead.
There’s a Lost Pet in Your Home or Yard
You should call your local animal shelter if the animal that is in or near your home is a pet that belongs to another person. When you have a stray cat in your yard or a strange dog in your shed, for example, you should call an animal shelter. Its representatives will offer these types of lost pets proper shelter and food until their owners can be found and the animals can be picked up. And if no owners come forward, the animals will be put up for adoption.
There’s a Sick or Injured Animal in Your Home or Yard
The SPCA or local wildlife rehabilitation centre will also step in if you call with concerns about sick or injured wildlife in or around your house. If you see that there’s an injured rabbit, sick opossum, or bleeding raccoon in your home or yard, then the wildlife rehabilitation centre is the right call to make. These agencies will remove the sick or injured animals and care for them until they’re ready to be released back into the wild.
There’s a Sick or Injured Animal Hiding in an Unreachable Place
However, these agencies are not equipped with the tools or the means to remove severely sick or injured wild animals that are hiding in areas of your home that are unreachable, such as behind walls. In this case, your best bet would be to call a wildlife control service for help.
There’s Healthy Wildlife in Your Home
Any time that you have healthy wildlife living in your home’s walls, attic, or basement, or its surrounding areas, like your yard, shed, or crawlspace, whether it’s one animal, a family, or a colony, then you need to call a wildlife removal company. They will take care of removing squirrels, opossums, rodents, birds, bats, raccoons, and even snakes from your home. Calling such a company right away can help you prevent the spread of disease in your home and help you prevent costly and significant damage to your property.
You Want to Prevent Future Intrusions
Even if the animal that you need removed from your home is someone else’s pet or an injured or sick animal, the humane society will do no more than simply remove the animal. It will not identify and repair entry points to prevent future intrusions. A wildlife control service company, however, will not only remove the animals in a humane way, but will also make sure that no others enter again. You’ll have a guarantee that all insulations or other common areas of entry will be repaired effectively to prevent future re-entry. The company will find the source, and fix it.
So to round up, call a humane society if the animal in or around your home is a lost pet, such as a dog or cat, or when the animal you see is sick or injured. However, if there is a sick, injured, or healthy animal in a hard-to-reach area, or if you want to prevent future intrusions, a wildlife control service company is the way to go.