Proposed DNR changes would require animal control workers to kill raccoons, opossums and coyotes

Proposed changes by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources would require animal control professionals to euthanize certain animals that they catch instead of allowing them to “catch and release” them. Michael Meservy has worked in animal control for 14 years. He operates mainly out of Marion, Hamilton and Boone counties and specializes in “catch and release.” The new regulations would require animal control workers like Meservy to euthanize all raccoons, opossums and coyotes that they catch instead of releasing them into the wild. “I’m going to have to take a mama raccoon and babies off of her fur and put them in a box and gas them,” said Meservy. “That is what I’m going to have to do.”