I have heard you can but don't know if that is true. I'll ask my brother he is a vet. when I was a kid I pulled one out of his hole by his tail, boy was he strong! That is the only one I have ever touched. We have them right here in our yard in the middle of Houston. They come out at night and dig holes in my yard, I never seen them except dead in the street.
Yup. They did up my yard here in Mobile too.