Many people, particularly on the religious right (no, I'm not accusing you of belonging to that group) are very uncomfortable with how much alike animals and humans are. Science continuously brings them closer. Do animals play? Yes. Do raccoons kill for fun? I'm quite certain some do.

In this case it was very clear from his behavior and voice this raccoon's companion knew there was a problem and that she shouldn't be in the coup. She wouldn't listen to him or to me, she wanted to kill pigeons. Period.

It is he I feel sad for. He was injured (not seriously) on her account and had to watch his wife die a horrible death. He isn't going to be feeling good for some time now.

#2 Parasites and diseases: Yes, we all carry them. Those carried by raccoons are of particular danger to humans though.

#2 Habitat: Yes, we have destroyed a lot of habitat. We have also built what ecological scientists call "the great urban forest". Many, though certainly not all, species have become highly acclimated to this environment, raccoons among them.

Here, a mile or more from the nearest undeveloped space, I see many times as much wildlife as I did on our (mostly abandoned) farm and forest in New Jersey.

So no. I do not feel sorry for killing this raccoon. Yes, I'm sad for her companion, and for the pigeons she killed and for their companions.

Pigeons are gentle, very family oriented, creatures (and vegetarian). They have personalities and relationships like all the rest of us do. They will even take over the feeding of another pigeon's child if that becomes necessary. They enjoy flying and fighting, splashing in water and building nests. They do not deserve to be killed for fun.

. . are not so much of a problem. They may not know "right" from "wrong" (our concept of it anyway) but they have a very keen sense of what they can get away with.

I met the smartest cat in the world in my pigeon coop, many years ago. It was before the condos were built. I was working in the back yard and a guy over the back fence asked, "Do you know there's a cat in your pigeon coop?"

I thanked him for the notice and went to investigate. Sure enough, there was a big orange cat in the rafters, and all the pigeons were on the other side of the coop watching the cat with intense interest.

I walked up to the cat, who was just above eye level. He sized up the situation, rolled off the rafter into my arms and started to purr.

I mean, what can you do with a cat like that except put him out and tell him not to try that again.

How do I know he was the smartest cat in the world? Because I never saw him again. He correctly calculated that this trick would work exactly once, and that next time pain would be involved.

Cats are very responsive to being whacked with a stick. It's not the minor pain, it's the intense injury to their dignity that's just too much to bare. They'll do whatever it takes to avoid that happening again.

Possums, on the other hand are just too stupid to learn from anything, including a good whipping, but they aren't up to the extreme gymnastics necessary to get into the coop, nor do they have strength enough to pull wire away, so I haven't had possum problems for years now.