--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "Christopher Pratt"
<luigimario87_at_...> wrote:
>
> Unfortunatly skunks are illegal to keep as pets in all but three
> states here.
>
> Same with foxes, raccoons and any other animal you would be willing to
> tame.
I don't know about any other states, but I know for certain that, in
Michigan, the law regarding skunk ownership is that you are prohibited
from *catching* and taming a wild one, but ones acquired from licensed
breeders are legally no different from a dog or cat; indeed, high-end
pet stores in some areas sell de-scented skunk kittens at least part
of the time.
My stepgrandmother has plenty of stories about skunks, though I don't
know most of them--she grew up on a farm, and later was married to a
farmer. The whole time, she had an open-door policy towards the wild
skunks who lived in the area. Very often, they'd wander in, chow down
on some proffered leftovers, hang around for a while, play with the
kids, and finally wander off again. So long as she let the skunks
leave freely, it was legal.
Mom tells of having been walking the dogs and, while one of them was
wandering along, she was cocking her head interestedly at something in
the weeds. Mom moves around, and finds her dog nose-to-nose with a
rather bemused skunk. Lucky for her, the dog was pulled away quietly,
and the skunk wandered off.
My only personal skunk encounter came at 3AM, on a two-lane road, at
55 miles an hour, in a U-Haul I was renting. I'm driving it back to
the shop after spending all day moving, and all of a sudden, there's a
black-and-white fuzzy thing that appeared in the beam of my
headlights. I swerved hard, and managed to teeter past the skunk (who
presumably was shitting itself in fear at this point) on two wheels,
and somehow dragged the truck back down onto all fours. Truck
returned on time, nobody hurt, including the skunk.
Received on Tue Dec 05 2006 - 15:46:44 CST