Assessment of rotating-jaw traps to humanely kill raccoons (Procyon lotor).

Rotating-jaw traps (Conibear 280 and Sauvageau 2001-8, and mechanically improved models) failed to render irreversibly unconscious in < or = 3 min raccoons (Procyon lotor) immobilized with ketamine hydrochloride and struck in the head-neck region. It is unlikely that these traps, and the less powerful Conibear 220, have the potential to humanely kill raccoons.