So we’ve had a skunk that has been hanging around our property for the last two months. We think it may have made a den under the neighbours’ shed. It keeps trying to get into our garage and has been successful, on occasion, resulting in it getting into our garbage bins and spreading the garbage all around inside the garage. It has also sprayed in the neighbourhood several times resulting in a nasty smell.
We have tried, unsuccessfully, to scare it away. It just keeps coming back and causing problems.
Last night/early morning, my oldest son managed to trap the skunk in a humane trap in our garage.
This morning I call the city animal control thinking that they could come and relocate the skunk to an appropriate place that won’t bother anyone or their property.
The city worker informs me that because it is my trap, we have to be the ones to release it. They won’t handle it. I ask them where I can release it.
I’m informed that skunks are a protected species and that we have to let it go “in the area.”
I ask her what that means. She repeats “in the area.” And I say, you mean anywhere in the lower mainland?
She says no. She says it should be within a block.
I say “Are you kidding me?”
She says that the skunk will bugger off and not come back if I do that. I inform her that we’ve been trying for two months to have the skunk bugger off and it hasn’t.
I also inform her that we live in a suburb and that it doesn’t seem right for me to release it in front of a neighbour’s house and make the skunk their problem.
Her answer to that was to just release it on the side of the road and not go onto the neighbour’s property.
I hang up the phone thoroughly disgusted with the conversation I just had.
I call the Ministry of Environment and tell them we have trapped a problem skunk on our property and we need to know what to do now.
Again I’m informed that it’s a protected species and that we have to release it within 24 hours and within 10 kilometers from where it came from.
“Within 10 kilometers?” I repeat back.
Yes.
Okay, fine. I can work with that.
I am not pleased about handling a skunk myself nor am I thrilled about the idea of transporting it in my car (don’t know anyone with a truck), but the law is the law and I’m not going to release it back into our backyard or onto a neighbour’s property.
So oldest son and I manage to get it into the trunk of the car and to our destination without getting sprayed.
I am, however, happy to report that we relocated this healthy bundle of joy 3.5 kilometers from our home within 12 hours of it being caught ... right on the front lawn of City Hall. They have a pond and a bit of a wooded area. It should be very happy there.
Just following the law.
