Larry Lambert has nothing against skunks.
But he doesn’t want families of them dumped in his rural neighbourhood.
Earlier this week the Mapleward Road resident said he caught a trapper doing just that along a hydro corridor adjacent to his property, releasing as many as six skunks that had been live-trapped elsewhere in Thunder Bay.
Before then someone had used the same corridor to dump a dead fox and several chicken carcasses in the grass, ironically enough under a no-dumping sign.
Lambert said he and his neighbours had their suspicions, when it became evident the animals were tearing up their property, and confirmed when he confronted the would-be trapper.
“I came down and spoke to the gentleman, who had his pick-up parked right here with his trailer. He was off-loading skunks. I didn’t actually see them, all of the traps were empty, but he was dumping the excrement and the bait out of the traps and cleaning up his tarps and getting ready to go home,” Lambert said.
“I spoke with him. He was pleasant enough, but he wasn’t concerned in the slightest. He wasn’t repentant. He did say he would stop dropping them here, he would find somewhere else to drop them.”
Lambert said he went public with his complaint, which he also filed with police and the city, to give warning to other residents of the city who might now live within range of the alleged trapper’s next dump site.
“I wanted other folks to be aware that somebody’s about to come to their neighbourhood and get the skunks that I hope aren’t coming here anymore.”
The Ministry of Natural Resources has quite specific regulations about trapping and removing nuisance wildlife.
In addition to abiding by municipality regulations, residents aren’t permitted to capture or kill more wildlife than necessary to protect their property.
They must be captured on one’s on property, can only be held for 24 hours and must be released within one kilometre of where they were captured. They may only be released on private property with the landowner’s permission.
Special rules apply to endangered or threatened species, moose, white-tailed deer, American elk and bears.
Lambert said he hopes others get the message that their trapping actions often have unintended consequences.
“It’s a concern because the lawns are getting dug up and the cats and dogs are getting sprayed or quills or whatever,” Lambert said.
