We had a small problem on the block here of a large groundhog that was either injured or sick in my neighbor's back yard. Several of the houses around in pitched in to hire a nuisance trapper (neighborhood rules prevented me from just shooting it). Well the groundhog has gone on for rabies testings and then den appeared to contain more so the trap remained.

Today it had a rather large and unhappy skunk in it. As I understand it your not suppose to relocate skunks because of them being vector animals in the rabies chain. Just after dark I took an old towel and covered the trap and carried it to a nearby stream and submerged the whole thing. I called the game commission and reported it and they confirmed to double bag it and put it in the trash.

Now I am a hunter and ending an animal's life is certainly not new to me, however as a rule I only hunt things I plan to eat. The only justification I can see is that if the groundhog turns out to be rabid the skunk occuping its den very well may have been.

Either way I intend to tell the other neighbors the next time the catch a skunk to deal with themselves.