Jesse Joe Durant has a possum problem.
“I had six this week,” Durant said referring to the number of possums he says he’s trapped over the past six days.
He bought that trap and set it up in his backyard in the Dona Park neighborhood of Corpus Christi after possums started getting under his house seeking warmth.
“I’m afraid they’re going to come through the wall,” Durant said. “I’ve been trying to catch them, but evidently it’s quite an epidemic.”
But catching them is just half the battle. Durant then has to get rid of them.
“Now I have to go let [the possum] go, relocate him, because I’m not going to kill him,” he said.
An employee at Corpus Christi Animal Control says relocating a wild animal you trap is illegal, and Durant says he’s scared of getting bitten when he opens the trap. An animal control officer will only come to your home and pick-up a trapped animal if the resident rented the trap from the city. You can drop off an animal you caught in a trap you own, but only between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“It has to be during certain hours, and I work daily,” Durant said.
Durant says he’s considering asking someone to drop off the animals he traps at animal control for him, but tonight he made another run to return a possum to the wild away from his home. As he started to drive away he wished aloud for a safe release.
“I’m afraid to get bit every time I open [the trap].” Durant said over the loud hiss of a caged possum.
