The skunk is dead....

[yellow]

DH shot a mocking bird with a pellet gun once. (We were living in the city limits in San Diego).

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that if he had killed the thing, it would have been a violation of the MBTA. It's a good thing the wildlifey lawyer I know works for the state and not the feds

I once had a fellow tell me he was going to turn me in for violating the MBTA because I collected an owl feather in the woods.

In a sick kind of way, I miss mockingbirds. They are completely absent from this part of Oootah.

(Note to all: this is meant to be humorous. really.)

[Zeek]

DH shot a mocking bird with a pellet gun once. (We were living in the city limits in San Diego).

The d@mned thing kept going off at 3 in the morning. It was like one of those car alarms that sounds all the different alarm tones over and over. We tried throwing rocks at it, shooing it away. It was in a neighbor's tree. Weeks and weeks this went on. Finally he went to the sporting good store and bought a pellet gun. Then one night, in the pitch dark, he shot it. I don't know how he did it, but the thing never came back, so he must have hit it.

We felt badly about it, but we slept better than we had in weeks.

I could be wrong (Lord knows it's happened before) but is it legal to kill a mocking bird?

[pooks]

You know I absolutely refuse to shop at Walmart. You can't shop at Walmart and simultaneously lament the loss of the middle class in America. In order to get such cheap prices, they force manufacturing to go overseas.

V.

I'm with you on this one.

I won't buy anything made in China any more. And it's not always about cheaper goods. When I pick up a designer coffee mug in Starbucks and see "Made in China" on the bottom, I am not believing for one second that it would have cost twice the already exhorbitant price if it had been made in the US. That's not even about delivering cheap goods; it's just about bigger profits for the multinationals that are running the world.

[Zeek]

Wow, did I open up a can of worms or what?

I am a country girl and have grown up around skunks my entire life. They are pests and they are wretched. They have no natural predators and therefore are overpoplulated. They do carry rabies and they do spray easily. Maybe the ones on Myth Busters were more accustomed to living with people and maybe the ones in the camprgound were accustomed to this as well. The ones that I have been around aren't.

They spray up to 10 feet. It is wretched. It can send you to the hospital it is so awful. I know two people who have gone to the hospital for that. I have had one dog that was sprayed 10 times. My neighbor that shot the skunk? Sprayed twice. Did you know that the spray of a skunk can make unopened food - crackers - taste like the spray of a skunk? It isn't a nose thing, either. The crackers that I am referring to were 3 months old and unopened. Barf. Did you know that the smell can linger in your car for up to 6 months after a near proximity spraying? We had a car growing up and MAN was it awful to ride in. Did you know that tomato juice really doesn't work? I do because I have bathed the dog that got sprayed with it numerous times.

This is not the first time that I have been around a skunk that we have shot, in fact, it is about the 11th time. Now hold your horses - I also fish and eat them. I like hunting. I also smack mosquitoes when they land on me. Horse flies too. I also set out DCon to kill the mice at my house. I eat chicken.

My point? Everything does have a place on the planet. Including US!!! I am not an awful person because I do these things. You aren't perfect because you don't. There isn't ONE right way to do things. You are entitled to your opinion on this matter as am I.

It didn't bring great joy for us to pop off a skunk , (and also I am not going to throw a funeral for it) - but it is a relief to know that it won't be lurking out there when I let my dog out - or when the kids do on accident. It is also a relief to know that I won't be getting sprayed next time I mow the lawn. They are creatures of habit and do tend to return to the same place to "nest".

Thanks for all of your opinions. I don't feel at all bad for what I did. Life in the Western rural setting is perhaps a bit different than the rest of the world. Just remember, there are many opinions and no ONE right way.

Very good and enlightening post--thank you, Flybye.