My critters are birds and rats.   

I'm formulating my defense this year.  I'm going to put mylar pin wheels on my trees and see if that works.   At night, I'm going to try plugging in a laser machine that will shine lasers around the trees and hopefully scare them away.   

I am not someone who cares to deal with dead animals so no guns or traps for me.

What's your new strategies for the coming year?

Netting for the birds and Tanglefoot for the ants. No rats.

I went thru the same thing last year first it started with the cat birds they were relentless but that was an easy fix  using bird netting, then came the raccoons they were so brutal they were actually snapping limbs off my trees a quick search on the internet and I found the perfect solution to bring that to an end,and of course our bushy tailed friends the squirrels had to join in the old trusty pellet gun took care of that problem ,  then came the chipmunks and they were the worst of all of them they won't go in traps so I tried the sheetrock bucket filled with water that took care of quite a few until they caught on they wouldn't go near the bucket again, by the end of the summer I felt like  Bill Murray in Caddy Shack unfortunately the only spot that I could put my fig trees is right up against the stonewall I have been giving it some serious thought to make a fenced in environment for my trees unfortunately  chicken wire won't work which is relatively inexpensive and the only thing that I believe will work is hardware cloth which is pretty expensive I wish you good luck trying to keep them away without "Heavy Artillery"

Rat terrier: multi-purpose fig protector.

i'll share some with birds. they don't bother me so much. as long as they don't dive bomb me again. tennis racquet will be ready and stand by the plants. ants.. i'll use my CP for those. i need to feed them some how. and tangle foot this year. field mice, coco next door is fattest cat i have ever seen. i like to keep her plump.

Catbirds are very common in NJ, probably everywhere, so I'm going with the bird nets- seemed to work last summer.
The tree rats aka squirrels are brutal on the figs, I think they taunt you as they run away with fruit in their mouth- still undecided on my course of action. 
Raccoons are tough because they come out at night, I have a few semi-dwarf fruit trees, one day 50 almost ripe peaches, the next morning, no peaches just broken branches.
I don't think the opossums eat too much and the groundhog  prefers the veggies and flowers.
Suburbia so that rules out the use of lethal force, unless I am in fear for my life- might have trouble trying to prove that in court.
The new fig guardian is a rescue, I think part aussie shepherd/rat terrier, much faster than the Rottie (RIP), so there's hope.
I am open to (legal) suggestions LOL