dc koop

I could really end up getting into a desert wilderness with all this yack on loveable,cute creatures of the wild.

How about gophers anyone ? Ever seen em up close? About as cute and loveable as it gets. Ever had em turn your nice carefully tended grass lawn into a mess of holes and dirt piles? They sell poison pellets in hardware stores to help get rid of them. Lets organize a protest march on all hardware stores and spew hatred and ill wishes on the store owner everyone.
How about cute bunnies from the wild ? They'll go through your garden veggies like a dose of mercury if you don't do something to stop them ?
Wild pigs (hogs) anyone? Some of them have cute baby hogs. They'll put a farmer out of business if no one does anything to get rid of them

I like opossums though. They don't bother me since they just hang out in trees.

Finally back to skunks. Anyone who claims they like or don't mind the smell must be the same apologists as family relatives who grin and bear it when Uncle Fred lets off one of his room emptying farts at the dining table.

Lets stop the hypocrisy. They come under the classification of vermin. They stink and if ever you run over one on the road you'll live the experience

dc koop

Lion in Winter

Yeah, let's just gas 'em all.

Lion in Winter

As far as I know, nobody is suggesting gassing the Queen.

And of course we have the RSPCA.

Being a discussion board, we do tend to read posts on here. It helps the flow, although I would be the first to admit that some don't read them very carefully.

dc koop

How many cute puppies, kittens, birds and other animals will be put down tomorrow in animal shelters all over the country?

What are you going to do to stop it, Have you adopted an animal from a shelter and saved it's life ? The dog I now have was from a shelter. It being a wolf by nature is territorial. It came upon a couple of skunks which had been leaving a stink near my patio for some time and which I couldn't get rid of. The dog went for the skunks, got badly sprayed and killed them both but the dog went through quite a bit of misery afterwards and cost me a couple of visits to the vet.

There nothing wrong and everything right in being kind and considerate to wild life but there are limits. Saying "lets just gas em all" just kills any further intelligent conversation on the subject

dc koop

I think the whole discussion went out of control by my probably misplaced comment on one method of eliminating skunks. I was tried as a murderer without even committing murder.

This is what comes about when people get hysterical and get their knickers all in a twist. Sacred cows and all that !

BillericayDicky

Skunks smell like Portland.

LondonSquirrel

OK, well firstly, I do donate to loads of animal charities both here in the UK and in the USA, as well as animal rights groups and rescues. I support a squirrel shelter, but you would probably classify them as 'vermin.'

Secondly the whole idea of some animals being 'worthy' and others being 'vermin' is just a ridiculous one, but one which many people clearly do buy into. Seems that fortunately you are the only one on this thread who does so.

How would you define 'vermin'?' The usual definition is a creature that there are too many of and who destroy the environment. As we humans are more populous and bigger destroyers of Earth than any others, don't you think for us to call any other species, especially our close relatives like mammals, vermin, is the height of hypocrisy?

I keep rats as pets so I am able to see beyond the prejudice better than most people. They are sweet, clean (more so than any other species I've had as a pet), intelligent, interesting and sociable. Perhaps that is why they are the third most successful mammal on earth after humans and house mice.

I guess you could define 'vermin' as any animal besides the human who is extremely successful!

scrubbedexpat097

I think they smell like burned coffee.

When I was a kid there was a grocery shop in town that ground up coffee beans in some probably now old fashioned fangled machine. Some days the smell would permate into the street and just was a weird burning smell.

The first time I smelled skunk spray it brought back childhood memories of the weird coffee smell

scrubbedexpat099

Pretty sure they use traps around here. Difficult to see to shoot.

LondonSquirrel

And furthermore I have experience of 'pest problems.'

My mum had a squirrel living in her loft. She did not want him killed. She spent a lot of money getting the wooden fascias replaced with vinyl ones so he couldn't get in any more.

We had house mice in the flat. We did not kill them. We started storing our food scrupulously securely and they went away.

It is rarely necessary to use lethal methods on wild or feral animals. In many cases, such as the gators in Orlando discussed in another thread, they were there before the people were.

Teckelspass

I thought I was the only one who had made that mental connection!

LondonSquirrel

Has anyone lived near a sugar beet factory? That's kinda how it smells.

scrubbedexpat097

I'm all for not killing but when certain animals, calling them vermin or not, get into your home then something needs to be done.

Cute they may be be they also carry diseases and eating food that mice, rats squirrels etc may have got into is a big no no in my opinion

Teckelspass

Absolutely. I am very passionate about animal welfare, but there is a limit. Moreover, at least in commercial establishments in many areas, lethal means may well be required to take care of the problem.