Free Trapping Job Pays Big In The End

Pro bono work… What does that mean to a business? Most people just see it as doing something for nothing. I guess if you’re looking at the small picture you would be right. However, I try to see the big picture whenever I can, and doing something for nothing is just a piece of the much bigger puzzle. Rewards for my trapping business come in many forms, not just financial.

I received a nuisance raccoon call from an elderly lady in a neighborhood and headed right over. The woman was super nice and told me about the masked bandit that gets in her trash all the time. When we discussed my fee, I watched her face go blank and knew she didn’t have the money. I remembered seeing a military sticker on her car and asked her about it. She told me they were retired military. I told her from one veteran to another, this job was on the house. Her smile was worth my fee any day. I caught Rocky Raccoon the first night, and her problem was over. I can still see her big ol’ smile.

This adult female gray fox was trapped at a middle school, along with her three pups. They were released down the road.

My pro bono trapping has been strategic sometimes, too. Not too far away from my home is a new housing development area. They have 6,000 homes, grocery stores, gas stations, their own fire station and even a monthly newsletter to all the residents. I advertised in their newsletter, “Free small animal nuisance trapping” for the next month. Believe me, I stayed busy. Several times, every trap I owned was set somewhere in somebody’s yard.

By the end of the month, I had handed out a couple hundred business cards and met and made friends with lots of homeowners. My business card is even on file at the property manager’s office where the residents call all the time about animal related issues. Since that month of pro bono trapping, I have received many paying jobs from those references. So sometimes, a little pro bono is good for the business.

Sometimes there’s just a need to help someone out when you have the means and ability to help. In these occasions money never crosses my mind. As I completed a recent job, my heart was filled, my grandson was thrilled and the Ag teacher was chilled. Let me share with you about this most recent pro bono trapping adventure.

Mrs. Bobbie Acevedo called me from the county middle school and told me about a family of foxes living under her portable classroom. During the coronavirus pandemic, the school was mostly deserted, but as teachers slowly started returning to school, more and more of them were seeing the fox family playing in the yard. There were at least three pups and a mom. The school security cameras were recording them in the yard after hours. What’s funny is that out of all the places they could have chosen to live, they chose the Ag classroom.

Mrs. Acevedo is the Ag teacher, and she did a little research and learned that it was gray foxes under her classroom.

I met her at the school and she showed me around all the areas where the little foxes were hanging out. She shared her concern that in a few days the school was having a program and lots of students would be all over the place. Mrs. A (as her students called her) was worried for the student’s safety, as well as the safety of the fox family. What she wanted was for all of the foxes to be captured and relocated before the school program.

With my grandson Declan in tow, we retrieved five cage traps from my truck and brought them around to Mrs. A’s classroom. She was very interested in the whole operation, so I shared with her how to set the traps and why I was placing them where I did. Once each trap was set and baited with chicken gizzards, they were easily slid under the classroom. We all left and let the area settle down.

The next morning Mrs. A called and reported that we had caught all three of the pups and the bait was stolen from the other two traps. She re-baited and set one of the traps under the steps close to the traps that contained the pups, and by 10 a.m., she had caught the adult female/mom. From that moment on, she has been referred to as “Trapper Bobbie.” We made a decision to release the whole family on the school’s agriculture property down the road.

Declan and I arrived at the school and were greeted by smiles from a happy teacher. After a few pictures and stories, we were loaded and off to the foxes’ new home.

We arrived on the property and readied ourselves to open all four cage traps at the same time. The animals bolted from the traps and ran down the two-trail road about 100 yards before diving off into the brush. Declan was jumping and fist pumping the air encouraging the little pups to run. Trapper Bobbie smiled and watched them until they were out of site. My fee had just been paid in full. Everyone was happy, the students were safe and the foxes were free.

Pro bono is more than just doing something for nothing.

Editor’s Note: The above story took place in north Florida. In Georgia, you can transport foxes in a cage or transfer a fox caught in a foothold to a cage for transport, but you must have a commercial trapping license to do that. The commercial trapping license is $40 a year. More information on Georgia trapping can be found online at georgiawildlife.com/regulations/trapping.