Animal emergency responders with Moss Landing non-profit WildRescue endured a stinky situation on Monday when they rescued a skunk that was caught in a batting cage net.
In an email to Santa Cruz Weekly, group founder Rebecca Dmytryk says she responded to a private Aptos residence around 1pm on Monday where the skunk had been trapped for about five hours.
“Sometime before dawn he had evidently poked his head through the netting and gotten stuck,” she writes. “In his panic, he began twisting and spinning, trying to get free. We approached slowly with a blanket held up to shield us from his spray. We used another sheet and a long-handled net to cover him. He was choking. He’d struggled so much and for so long that he was near exhaustion. He was so badly entangled we felt it safest to cut him away from the net and have him sedated to remove the rest.”
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Dmytryk says the skunk sprayed the area multiple times, but that, in the end, it was worth it.
“It smells like the most intense poultice of sweet garlic and onions,” she writes “Awful, noxious, but worth suffering through to help a very nice beast, the skunk. They do us great service by eating rodents, insects, moth larvae, beetles, and refuse.”
With spring quickly approaching, animals like skunks, raccoons and opossums are looking to take shelter under houses and buildings in order to give birth to their young. Dmytryk says folks who find themselves sharing a residence with unwanted critters should call WildResuce at 831.429.2323, and her team will come and remove the animals safely, and in some cases release them back into the wild.
