Raccoons usually travel and live in groups. Although you may catch one or two in a trap, there are usually more in a neighborhood. Sick raccoons will rarely be attracted to the food in a trap and are usually too disoriented to even enter the trap. By trapping scores of healthy raccoons and subsequently destroying them, more room is available for sick raccoons to move in and take over your backyard. Trapping healthy raccoons or those with the serum neutralizing antibodies can create a rebound phenomenon.
Trapping can actually prolong rabies outbreaks among raccoons.
In Massachusetts, the law requires that trapped animals must be either released at point of capture or humanely destroyed. A list of permit holders is available from the Division at 727-3151. Not all wild animals harbor the rabies virus. The animals that are the primary carriers of rabies in Massachusetts are raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats. But not all raccoons have rabies.