My neighbors are apparently skunk assassins.

[mamasaurus]

H came home late tonight, and before he fell asleep on the couch, he told me how he saw the neighbors around the corner taking aim at a skunk with some kind of firearm. We live right by a park that has free movies on Friday nights, and kids and families from all over town walk there, right past his house. I don't think he should be blasting away in the dark like that. Then again, I am biased; I like skunks (not their smell of course) and think if you don't want to deal with woodland creatures, you shouldn't buy a house that's right by the fucking woods. I think it's cool that I see foxes and bats in our neighborhood. If I ever live in the city again, it's something I'll miss.

Anyhow, WWYD? I kind of want to hang around outside tomorrow in hopes of seeing him at it again so I can yell at him.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Hmmm. I think if I knew this person (are talking adult here?) had a gun, I'd call the cops. I'm not one to do that ( hello, in Philadelphia they have more important things to deal with than noise ffs!)

And yes, Mad Season

[mamasaurus]

I want to call the cops but will feel really dumb if H saw it wrong and it's a BB gun. Still assy if you ask me, but probably not illegal.

[HiC]

You still can't shoot at animals with BB guns. Cruelty to animals and all that. Call the cops and see what they say.

[mrsjuleshs]

call the cops. Let them sort it out.

[ralphlauren]

Call the cops or animal control. People fucking suck.

[HiC]

My dog has a BB in his leg from somebody using him as target practice . He's the nicest dog ever....I don't know why they'd shoot at him. Call the cops and see what they can do about it. If the skunks are bothering anybody, they should be left alone.

[IndiaInk]

I have no friendly feelings towards skunks. Shoot 'em all. I have a farm (and yes, I live out in the middle of absolute nowhere) and the skunks are eating all my chickens alive every night. They pull their legs off and leave the chickens to die. It's awful. I shoot skunks whenever I catch them on our farm property. It's a little unsafe that the people you saw are shooting animals within sight of the public though, I will give you that.

[sydney02]

IndiaInk are you sure it's skunks doing that? Sounds more like raccoons maybe. I've honestly never heard of an animal pulling legs off of chickens and leaving them alive. And I'm in the boonies and practically everyone I know has chickens.
Skunks are scavengers not hunters. They'll eat things like mice and small animals. But they are more likely to look in a trash can for food than go on a killing spree.

Also, are your chckens free ranging? If so, skunks are far from your biggest problem. They need to be in the coop at night. If your chickens are in a coop and something is still getting in, it's more likely a fox or coyote.

Honestly pulling legs off a chicken and leaving it to die sounds more like some sick shit that kids would do.

Country people seem to fall into two categories. Those that enjoy nature and only take action if it is truly necessary and those that kill for the sake of killing.

[sydney02]

Indiaink, I just did some reading and as I thought, skunks are not a threat to chickens. They have been known to eat chicks or eggs if the opportunity is there. But they do not go after grown chickens.
Raccoons have been known to kill chickens by grabbing them through the chicken wire and often they will get a leg or even their head. If your chickens are being attacked in their pen, then it's raccoons. Using a wire with a smaller mesh stops that problem because they can't reach through to grab.
Or having a dog will cure the predator problem.

If your chickens are free ranging, there really is no animal that will pull a chicken's legs off and leave the chicken laying there like that. They would take the body and eat it.
In this case you've got someone pulling a sick prank on you.

[mamasaurus]

Aug 18, 2012 0:32:51 GMT -5 sydney02 said:

IndiaInk are you sure it's skunks doing that? Sounds more like raccoons maybe. I've honestly never heard of an animal pulling legs off of chickens and leaving them alive. And I'm in the boonies and practically everyone I know has chickens.
Skunks are scavengers not hunters. They'll eat things like mice and small animals. But they are more likely to look in a trash can for food than go on a killing spree.

Also, are your chckens free ranging? If so, skunks are far from your biggest problem. They need to be in the coop at night. If your chickens are in a coop and something is still getting in, it's more likely a fox or coyote.

Honestly pulling legs off a chicken and leaving it to die sounds more like some sick shit that kids would do.

I agree.

Finding chickens like this is horrible and would break my heart. As far as I know, though, skunks prefer to raid the eggs and leave the hens alone, and in many cases they will get attacked by the hens, spray, and run. I have heard that getting a goose is enough to deter them--their poor eyesight makes them really not good at fighting, and geese will almost always fight. I also have read that if a skunk does kill a chicken, it usually rips out the throat and drinks the blood. (Ew.) I am not sure a skunk is the culprit. I vote sicko humans, possum, or raccoon. Possums do leave a musky odor, too.

Anyhow, I hope you can get a solution to this problem. Those poor chickens.

[IndiaInk]

Our chickens are meat chickens which "free-range" in 10x12 pens that I move daily to fresh grass. These pens are made of tight mesh and no predators can get inside the pens. However, skunks are reaching their paws through tiny cracks along the ground and pulling the legs off and chickens that they can reach. They are also scratching some birds to death. Yes, I KNOW it's skunks because I've seen their prints, I've seen their claw marks (very distinctive shape) on the pens and every night I set a live trap next to the pens and I catch a skunk by morning. I have caught 19 (YES NINETEEN) skunks in the last month. All the other farmers I've spoken to agree that skunks do, indeed kill chickens. So, I'm sorry. I'm a little upset about the skunks.

[Deleted]

I have just learned more about skunks and racoons then I ever wanted to know.