Winter-2022

That photo hoisted two red flags: one, those birds don’t nest in trees and, two, it was found in an urban environment. Rolling to the loca- tion, Burton found the goose lethargic, incontinent and cloudy- eyed. “I took it to the SPCA for Monterey County the next morn- ing, and they confirmed that it had Avian Bird Flu,” he says. As for bats, they can potentially—but only rarely—carry rabies, but people’s fears were aroused when early reports during the pandemic put blame for the spread of the Covid- 19 virus squarely on the webbed wings of those flying mammals. Burton’s company has been hired for some interesting situations. He’s dealt with feral peacocks and a pet snake that got loose and was slithering around inside a home’s walls. “We got a call from Lake McClure in the Sierra foothills last spring,” he says. “A pair of injured donkeys were stranded on an island in the middle of the lake.” He and his team sprang into action, bringing them to shore by boat then trans- porting them to a rescue facility. The kinds of critters that cause problems vary with the season. “Right now [early October], it’s bats. A month ago, it was rattlesnakes in Carmel Valley and San Benancio Canyon; two months ago, wild pigs.” In June? “That was a tie between skunks, raccoons and opossums, because that’s their breeding time.” Though Burton says that they account for a small percentage of his business, perhaps the most dramatic work Urban Trapping performs is the trapping of feral pigs. “Wild pigs impact farming operations throughout the Monterey and San Benito County ag communities, due to direct crop loss and food safety,” says Jeff Cann, a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.“We get many requests for depredation from farmers and home- owners.”That’s when Burton gets a call. Pigs are not native to this region.The domestic pig was brought here by the Spanish in the 18th century, and many escaped and became feral. 160 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 Photos: Courtesy of Urban Trappers A baby skunk and opossum were separated from their mothers. Burton nurtured the opossum in his facility until it was able to survive on its own, then released it in the general area where it was found. Urban Trapping often receives calls about injured wildlife. This skunk was transported to Native Animal Rescue.