Quit Feeding The Skunk!

[blas]

Short rant.

I'm sick and tired of people at work tossing food that they don't want all over the outside break area at work. It encourages this particular skunk to come by every. single. night.

Last night, he came within 5 feet of everyone. Most of us normal people quietly scooted away, as to not provoke it.

Idiot coworker who is a little TOO animal friendly kept trying to get it to come CLOSER to her and gave it MORE food! "Ohhh but it's soooOooooo cute!" "No I will NOT get sprayed!" "Why are you so scared, it's just a black and white kitty!"



I am an animal lover, I truly am. But I prefer conserving wildlife and protecting it. Feeding wild animals is a stupid thing to do, as is being ignorant enough to think that no one will ever provoke it or cause it to attack. This is not a cute little skunk that has had its stinker taken out and been domesticated. It's a wild skunk...large chance that it has rabies or some other crazy disease!

People at work are so fucking stupid. Ok, make fun of me for fleeing away from the skunk, because I don't want to be sprayed or attacked. All it takes is one dumbass to scare it, and that tail will go up and WOOOOSH! Those things can spray quite some distance! Make fun of me for not wanting to have to go home because I got sprayed.

Oh I am SURE the company really wants to pay workman's comp to some idiot who got sprayed by/attacked by a skunk. I'm really sure the company's higher ups like the fact that employees are encouraging wild animals to come nearby.

I put a bug in someone important's ear about the issue. I hope it gets resolved.

Fucking morons.

[XCashier]

I'd be half tempted to let nature take its course, as it were. Let the dumbasses learn their lesson the hard way.

Unfortunately, it's very likely an innocent bystander will get caught in the line of fire. I'm glad you let someone important know about this, hopefully they will put the kibosh on this nonsense.

[Parrothead]

hmm... If you were about 20-25 feet back, you could watch and stay un-stinkified.

(Skunks can spray 10 feet with accuracy, 15 feet it's a fine mist.)

But still, very, very stupid.

[PepperElf]

the very very evil side of me ... says... Let the dumbass feed the skunk and get close enough so she can pet it.

Then blow one of those canned airhorns.

or if you think they'll get you in trouble for it... arrange for some other loud noise that will scare it... setting your car alarm off, drop your cell phone on your foot ... and go "OWWWWW!" ...

sure it'll stink up the area but....

sometimes you just have to let them learn the hard way.



oh, that reminds me... some of those wild pets have rabies too. maybe it'll bite her after it sprays... so she'll have to get rabies shots and a tomato juice bath...

[blas]

I'm worried about an innocent person walking outside to smoke, shutting the door too hard, and getting themselves in the "line of fire".....

Of course, after it was made public....guess who is now one of the most hated people at work? I told you I work with a bunch of fucking morons.....everyone thinks I'm being petty, the skunk isn't going to hurt anyone, it's more scared of us than we are of it, blah blah blah, why would you go to someone about this....get this, one of the ONLY people on my side is............ANN! Ann grew up on a farm (not that you need to have grown up on a farm to know these things, though..it's common sense!) and she said "I'm surprised so many people are angry with you over it. Wild animals are not something to play with, and feeding them is just asking for trouble!"

What the hell ever. Get sprayed then. Meanwhile, I have to be on watch every single break to see if that vermon decides to swagger up yet again and come eat, unless something does get done. And let me guess, if the kabosh is put on it, I won't be able to walk the halls without people hissing at me for ruining their fun with wild animals.

Fucking morons. All of them who think that it's so cute and fun having that thing nearby us.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I myself would be afraid of attracting more vicious animals, like a raccoon.

I'm told that while we were working on third shift, one night everybody was having a smoke break in the vestibule, where they saw a raccoon going through our garbage cans outside.

[blas]

Raccoons are not out of the question at all. It is of course a wooded area. Small, but big enough for wild turkey on steroids, fox, skunks, deer.....I dare say there are bear in there, too.

And the thing is, it doesn't matter what these wild animals are known for eating. They are all scavengers of some sort and they will eat almost ANYTHING. That skunk really loves cigarette butts.

Maybe that's why he keeps coming back. It's not the food, he's having a nick fit!

I would not even put bear out of the question. Of course, my idiot coworkers would try to lure it closer and go "Awwww! Look! It's a big teddy bear! Let's take a picture of it with our cell phones!"

(Yes, someone did try to take a picture of that stupid skunk already).

[artifical sweetner]

we had baby skunks in our yard and it is really really cute...but i kept my distance, that smell takes forever to go away

[draftermatt]

(Yes, someone did try to take a picture of that stupid skunk already).

Did you see the news story a while back about a guy who bent down to take a picture of a baby mountain lion only to get bit in the face?

And then had to get rabies shots because the only reason the cat was near humans was the rabies?

I'd ask your Coworkers about that.

[blas]

Are you telling me that rabies is why it wanted to be so close?

If you can give me a link or anything that's solid proof, I'll love you long time!

I TRIED explaining that an animal with rabies may not necessarily be foaming at the mouth or running around like crazy, but still be infected. Animals with rabies are CARRIERS. They may not show their obvious symptoms.

But of course, remember, I'm just a Jessica Simpson clone....I made that up and you can tell if an animal has rabies and for pete's sake, the skunk isn't going to hurt you if you leave it alone.

Yes, dumbasses....if you leave it alone. As in, STOP FEEDING IT!

[draftermatt]

Recently new symptoms of rabies of wild animals have been observed, namely in foxes. Probably at the beginning of the prodromal stage foxes, who are extremely cautious by nature, absolutely lose wild instincts. Animals come into settlements, reach for people, and behave as if tame. How long such "euphoria" lasts is not known. But even in such status the animal is extremely dangerous, as its saliva and excretions still contain the virus and the animal is vary unpredictable. About this is article on [2] which author observed and photographed sick animal in the nature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/kidsr...ng/warning.htm

Has some really good info including

wild animals that appear abnormally tame or sick

And finally

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/qanda/general.html

[Kitten in the box]

Let them get sprayed. And when your co-worker smells like skunk you can jokingly say... "I thought your "kitty cat" wouldn't spray you....what happened?" I have seen wild skunk and I give them a great deal of space and respect. I have also pet and held a domesticated skunk. Even though the domesticated skunk was a big love bug and had his stinker thing removed he still had this odor to him. I doubt very much that you can fullly desent a skunk.

[BlaqueKatt]

this website has some good information on facts vs. myths of skunks and rabies-including that skunks are the number 2 carrier/spreader of rabies in the us after raccoons, and they are infectious for about a week before the "classic" clinical signs appear.

[blas]

Thank you very much for the info, I will be sure to pass this around!

[Darkwish]

At a job I had many years ago, I worked the graveyard shift and during breaks would chat with the security guards all the time. There was usually two on shift and one would go on patrol around the building while the other would be in the security office in case someone lost their badge or whatever.

One night, one of the guards called me over to the security office saying "You've GOT to see this!!!" and showed me some security camera footage taken of the parking lot on the other side of the building, not 5 minutes before. The other guard was doing the rounds and walking through the parking lot when he suddenly stops, turns around to look at something and starts backing up. Next thing I see is this furry thing walking towards the guard, about the size of a cat. The guard is still backing up and when the thing gets too close, he kicks it away. The thing lunges at him and he kicks it away again. By this time, he's used his radio to call the other guard and the other one has taken control of the camera and started zooming in on what's going on.

While the camera is zooming in, the guard kicks the animal away a few more times when it gets too close before turning and running back inside the building. It starts to follow him and finally gets into one of parking lot lights where we can clearly see it in the zoomed in camera footage - it's a giant fucking RAT!!!

There's no doubt it was a rat - it had the tail, nose, movement etc. of a rat, there's no way it could have been anything else! And it was a HUGE rat!

About this time, the other guard makes it back to the office and asks us "Did you fucking see that thing???" At which point we rewind the tape so he can see it as well.

As he described it, he was making his normal patrol through the parking lot when he hears some strange sounds coming from the field next to the parking lot. He turns and looks and sees an animal start coming towards him. At first he thinks it's a small stray dog or a cat or something. When it got close enough for him to see that it wasn't, he started backing up and avoiding sudden movements. When it got closer and he was able to see that it was a rat, he kicked it away and kept kicking at it when it kept coming after him. After a few kicks, it hesitated and that's when he ran back inside.

They ended up escorting people to their cars on that side of the building to make sure nobody else got attacked by it and called animal control in the morning.

I never would have believed them if I hadn't seen the security tape myself. I wish I had been able to get a copy of it, but that was back in the days when floppy disks were still the standard and there was no way to copy it off the security system.