A sad mistake

[Raden1942]

Yesterday I killed a skunk getting into my cats food bowl. Generally I leave the skunks alone for obvious reasons but also because I think they are cool. Also I owned ferrets and they gave me a love for weasels. Well I draw the line with my cat being bullied. This skunk was mean and posturing and my cat is a big dumb unneutered Tom cat that I rescued as a kitten and he never backs down from a fight. Fearing the coming vet bills and stink I put a .25 predator polymag in her heart. She went in the trash and that was that... Or so I thought. Last night two babies came out looking for thier mother. Half deaf and almost blind they aimlessly searched for her. I tried to live trap them but they wouldn't eat food they were clearly still nursing. Unable to help them anymore I finally dispatched them with a single shot. They died instantly and I feel terrible. I am sharing this so that other people might be able to learn from my mistake. Next time a skunk is being mean over food this time of year I will probably just buy another bag of catfood and put a bowl up on the hill away from my cat. No pictures on this one guys. Not a proud moment.

 

[RobR]

I appreciate your compassion but I’d have done the same. We had six little babies living in our back shed and it was cute for a minute but I instantly knew how it’d end. Five minutes later I heard the dog crying in distress and that made my job a little easier. 

 

[vmaxpro]

It happens man dont feel too bad. Im a hunter but love wildlife as well. Ive got a big barn door for a garage door and one night I closed the door and cut a gila monster right in half. I felt like the biggest pos on the planet! They are very rare and extremely cool and I look for them constantly

 

[TNT19]

It's a good thing you have compassion as killing for fun is never a good thing. Skunks are predators and can cause a ton of damage if unchecked. Your cat would have come across the babies and the mother would have gone off on it and odds would be high you would have had to put it down. I had to shoot a mother coon and she had pups sadly but they were doing damage and threatening my animals.

 

[2muchair4leyla]

I had a family of Raccons eating my peaches and thought they were living in the forest until my ceiling started to bulge then I found a big hole in the roof and raccon poop in my attic luckily it w as winter or the damage would have been a lot worse I had to trap and kill the mom the babies got away they still eating peaches when wild animals find a good food source they want to be as close to it as possible and eventually become a problem 

https://youtu.be/GUavN5vEBIE

 

[boscoebrea]

 I feel your pain,compassion is a good thing,you did the only thing you could have done.

In our Delta place where cousin Gary lives,he has a pet skunk and possum,cats dog and big lizards and so on.The skunk eats first,then the cats then the possum...I guess it is a picking order.Niether the skunk nor possum stay there at the same time and only at night...strange to see the skunk curled up on the side of the sofa.

 

[Raden1942]

Usually the skunks come from the hill behind my fence and just eat a little bit and run when my cat stands off with them. I usually let them go because they are more trouble to kill and dispose of but this one was mean and not backing down. I don't have chickens or anything so they are usually not a problem. Its just a shame she had babies. If it was a raccoon I would have no issue with killing the babies because they turn into real backyard bullies. My cat fights them and they win every time. I kill them as fast as I can before they cause me a 1000 dollar vet bill. Anyway made me sad. Thanks for the reassuring words. 

 

[biohazardman]

Probly not a mistake but more like an unpleasant task compassionately done. Feeding them will likely cause problems for someone down the line.

 

[DirtyDovi]

You did what you had to do bro. Compassion & empathy can be a real b**ch somtimes.
I know the feeling. I've had to take out a few raccoons in the past, and I love those things! 

Quick skunk story..
In the mid/late 90s, I had a huge 1/2 pipe [vert ramp] in my folks' back yard.. 
I took my bike out to ride, when I heard something behind it.. 
Figuring it was a kid or kids up to no good, I snuck around real quiet like, then jumped out.. 
Annnd was met by a Huge skunk spinning around, and spraying the hell out of me! lol 
Ohhhh daaaamn did it burn my eyes/lungs/throat, and *gag* the smell!!!  
We lived in the city, literally bordering a park w/ baseball fields, playgrounds, etc..

Apparently, the neighbor saw the skunk come down off the hill on the other side of the ball fields, 
and decided that it would be a brilliant idea to start feeding it her cat's food.. Yeeaah.. NO! 
They definitely become accustom to it and expect it.. 
When she stopped feeding it, it wandered around nearby looking for more easy handouts.. 
It's lucky that I didn't hand it some lead-supplements, but lucky for it - I had other things to do.. 

 

Sam -

PS: Tomato juice/paste did not work.. can after can..
I can't remember what else I tried pouring all over myself, but... 
The huge bottle of Scope mouthwash over my head definitely took the edge off. hahaha

 

[survivor45]

This is why I only feed my carport (or barn) cat. 1/4 cup of food at 5pm when he is around. If I don’t see him. No food gets put out. He is wild. He will fend for himself. 

 

[ChrisUSA]

My Dad used to live trap them (or whatever else was in there in the AM,... coons, opossums, cats, etc.). He put a blanket over the cage/trap, carried it off, dispatched them and never had an issue.

On the topic of skunks,... and Covid,.... a fellow walked in the local Walmart the other day with what looked like a skunk over his shoulder,.... petting it all the way as it appeared to be sleeping. It looked real. Was it real? I do not know. I was heading to the register. I am assuming? it was a customer with a real good sense of humor and the skunk was a stuffed animal,.... or maybe it was a "support" animal? Either way,.... people were making a pretty wide path as he proceeded. Wished I had thought of it first!

 

[kcatx]

Raden1942 I feel for you-- I'd never want to harm a skunk. Sometimes life is harsh and you have to do what you have to do.

2muchair4leyla, MAN! Watching your raccoon video I felt for you as well. Often a perfect shot is not available but I'm glad you did what you could as reasonable as was possible. IMHO there is no such thing as overkill-- for me I want to end any suffering as soon as possible, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I could tell it was gone.

 

[qball]

One should never take pleasure taking a life. However it sounded like you had to do it, it’s good to have compassion even for pests. This is why I make sure whatever I used is “overkill” to ensure as little suffering as possible. Skunks are pretty cool unless you have a garden. 

 

[CadMechanic]

If you live in the sticks the wild animal has more right than your domesticated animal and yourself. The worst part is that we made so many humans that this scenario is unavoidable now. Our societal structure killed that animal. Hard facts.

 

[CadMechanic]

In addition, domestic cats are an unnatural plague that are decimating natural wildlife. More hard facts.



Also I love cats. 



My current cat is a rabbit. Not a wild one.

 

[CadMechanic]

One should never take pleasure taking a life.

Idk.



Been pretty happy about ending some mosquitoes lives.



They stab me with their knife-mouth and suck blood from my body.



Yeah, I like it when they die.

 

[BigTinBoat]

One should never take pleasure taking a life.

Idk.



Been pretty happy about ending some mosquitoes lives.



They stab me with their knife-mouth and suck blood from my body.



Yeah, I like it when they die.

Wait so a wild "animal" has more "right", but a wild "insect" doesn't? Not sure of the reasoning on that one.

 

[davelarson]

Raden1942, you are a good man, it is awful to deal with that. There’s a big skunk hanging out here, as well as Sketchy the raccoon. This post has made me think about what I’m doing by keeping cat food in the bowl at all times. It’s a big mistake and I’m going to follow survivor45’s example and only feed at a certain time, Scooter the wild cat will figure it out and Sketchy the raccoon will go somewhere else. And thanks to Raden1942 the big skunk gets a pass in case it’s a mom, it’s on the box in the background.

 

[davidsng]

That happens. But, in six months they would have been in your cats food and you would had to do the same thing as you did to their mother. Cant trap skunks, they spray everywhere. 

I always try to kill all my problem animals in march, before I would have to deal with that. They make it to mid April, they will have a past until fall.

 

[Raden1942]

Cadmechanic..... Really? Human encroachment didn't kill those skunks my airforce condor did. I live in a suburban bay area city. No encroaching here. Skunks and coons live in the most modern cities on earth. You can find them in NYC. Honestly unless it's a rare animal that is endangered I say thin the herd if they are a problem. I just don't like killing babies. I'm not giving you a hard time though I just don't subscribe to that belief. Be fruitful and multiply, move out of the cities and into wild places and cull the pests and nuisance animals. This world was made to be populated subdued by men. Men with spears and bows and airguns and fire. As long as we practice morality and conservation we can live with nature and bend it to our will without destroying it.