Curious if you ever have to be able to prove animal(s) are a nuisance? Has a warden ever hassled you as to whether or not it was a true nuisance situation? For example, lets say a customer has some muskrats in the stream behind his house, and he doesn't like them. The law allows for nuisance trapping rats. Does a trapper or the landowner have to be able to prove that a nuisance situation exists (such as bank erosion)? Someone might try arguing that beavers passing thru, for example, are a nuisance, and want them trapped. I'm not sure how clear the law is in this regard. I mean a landowner may not like so many coon on his property, for example, but if they aren't creating what a reasonable person might perceive to be an actual problem, I wonder if it's ok to go in & trap them. What some customers consider a nuisance, others may not. I think the law allows a lot of latitude for the trapper to go in & do the job regardless, and do it any time of year, but I'm not sure.

In Texas, the Wildlife Code is very lenient toward landowners and/or their agents (trappers for hire) regarding depredation/nuisance wildlife problems. Basically, if a landowner has a problem, they are allowed to take care of it by any reasonable means. There are, however, restrictions imposed by some cities due to safety concerns, which is understandable. From what I've read here and other sources, there is a great deal of variation from state to state, some being completely ridiculous from the standpoint of the property owner.
Best practice is to be well informed on the contents AND interpretation of the governing statutes that apply to the area in question. Better still, ask the local game warden/conservation officer what the rules and restrictions are. Here, if I'm hired to do work on private property, I never have to look over my shoulder to see who's watching. That does not relieve me of the personal responsiblity to do my work in a safe, ethical and responsible manner. God Bless Texas!

1 thing tough around here is that the local game warden is a revolving door. It's unreal. As soon as I get to know 1, he moves on. Not quite sure why that is. It's been that way now for at least 10 years, but never used to be.

Never have had a problem, but I use live traps only. If I catch a cat etc. I can just turn them loose. I always introduce myself to all new CO's.

I've run an ADC business in Wisconsin for more than 30 years. I my opinion it is one of the best states in the union for doing so. Our laws almost always favor the land owner and our law enforcement is excellent. Perhaps one of the reasons for that is we don't normally ask stupid questions!

Our license is a permit to take certain animals out of the regular trapping season.

I've never had to prove anything, but some day I suppose I might.

In nearly 20 years of doing ADC work, I have only interacted with police twice. The first was some years ago when I was trapping nutria in a canal for the city. A state trooper saw me and pulled in hopped out and asked what I was up to. I told him. He said he was new to Oregon and had no idea what a nutria was, but wished me luck and drove off. And I had forgotten my notebook with all my signed documents in it that day. And in Oregon the State Police are in charge of enforcing game laws!

The second time was just a couple of weeks ago when I forgot to latch the canopy doors on my truck. I took off at an intersection and a Platsti-trap with a possum in it slid out the back and under the differential of the truck behind me. When I pulled over and ran back, I saw the next rig back was a county sherriff. The door had been knocked off the trap and I told the cop I was glad it wasn't a skunk that slid out. He said "There is an animal in there?" I showed him the possum and he took out his phone and took a picture of it got in his rig and took off.

Long story short, most cops dont have the foggiest idea what is a violation around here. Specially if theyre not dedicated game wardens.

Our ADC agents write the permit to remove the animal
EXCEPT with coyotes, deer, turkey, bear
the game warden has to write those

Do you have to get a new permit to remove every new animal you get a request to remove or is it a blanket permit. My permit names the animals I can remove.

It will be based on the state where services are being offered. Some states have a specific definition for nuisance animal while others don't.

you can put multiple species on a permit written on that day, ie, I used to write squirrels and coon on the same permit since both were in the attic.

typically the permit is for 1 species.

With beavers, no one really has trouble determining which animals are a nuisance.

With other animals, if they’re doing their part in nature, they’re off limits out of season. Example would be bobcats eating chickens (nuisance) vs bobcats eating fawns (nature).

When people understand why things are they way that they are (and can be changed), there’s a better chance they’ll appreciate those that are doing their part to protect the resources. That goes beyond enforcement to also cover the biologists that work hard to provide data that the regs are based on. It’s a big picture thing, and something that’s important to me.

Person calls game and fish in Arkansas. They give my number to them. I go out. Only thing I need s permit on would be like deer. Nest predator animals can be killed yr around. Get a permit once a yr. Only thing I would need a permit would be like big game animals here.

Some really good guys here have given you excellent ideas. Read and reread the answer above about asking questions of certain people (not us here).

I do not know your rules of course, but have helped quite a few guys. Hopefully this will help.

This is what I do. On page 1 of my agreement, I include the relevant statutory definitions of both nuisance and wildlife listed individually which then progresses to the next paragraph.

Next in the document, the customer asks me to catch the following nuisance wildlife being then blank line to fill in what I will be trapping. So with my guidance they ask me to catch what they declare to be nuisance wildlife. Full circle to the conclusion to them writing a check.

Get professional assistance preparing your documents. Document design and content are very important and worth the investment in a really skilled and talented professional.

Michigan has a written set of rules of sorts that accompanies the application and also comes with the ADC/ nuisance trapping license. It does state right in that document that just because an animal li we on a property it is not a problem just because the owner doesn't like it there.

Some NY townships have no exception for trapping nuisance animals in the town code. But no one will hassle you.
The DEC will tell you to destroy nuisance coons, do not release them.