The unpleasant task of skunk disposal

[CoyoteJack]

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.

[Dredly]

Pest animals need to be dealt with...

justification? I got all the justification you need... come smell my house and dogs, they got sprayed over 2 weeks ago and we will still randomly get wiffs of skunk... stupid critters.

groundhogs and rabbits eat my garden and plants like they are going out of style. I lost 1/2 of my strawberry plants (or more) to them.

Groundhogs are also mean little buggers, they dig huge holes that appear randomly and can cause issues if something steps in them, their dens are also often used by anything that wants, today its skunks, tomorrow it might be snakes or more ground hogs.

There are few critters I will kill on sight and not eat, skunks and groundhogs are the top 2

[Black Label]

The way I see things is...

If you want to live in an environment that was once mother natures, you have to help to take her place. In other words, she would have something else to control groundhogs and skunks. We can't live with that something else, so we must take its place and do its job in the grand scheme of things.

I understand on our farm, its not a natural environment. I mow everytwhere, to cultivate the soil. That makes it ideal habitat for groundhogs. I can't live with too many fox, or any coyotes. So, I have to take their place. If I don't. I have groundhogs all over the place. Skunks and coons too.

It's just the way things work.

Should have skinned that skunk. If he had full stripes he was worth a couple bucks. Plus, it would have made you feel better for using him after death.

Don't sweat it. It's just a wall you or some one else built in your mind.