According to the National Post, the skunk can’t stay in Canada. “It would be illegal to release the skunk [in Canada] because it could spread diseases among the local population. Skunks are also territorial and the small stowaway would have to fight bigger local skunks to survive.” Getting the skunk home, however, is a challenge.
Besides the problem of transporting a creature that has the ability to raise a stink at a moment’s notice, there are regulatory issues for legally crossing back into the United States.
Driving the skunk 5,000 kilometres back to California poses another set of problems. The driver will need to declare the animal at the border and carry the necessary paperwork and permits for each state the skunk passes through, Ms. Karvonen said.
Of course, there is now a contest to name the skunk, and to come up with a winning solution for returning the critter to California. This seems like the kind of thing that would benefit from the wisdom of the BMG community.
We need a name for a skunk from the west who stealthily came east.
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How about Willard?
Interesting but didn’t they name a rather famous RAT the same name?
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Rat? Skunk? The hidden analogy is not lost on most of us……
Publius, what do you have against that poor skunk?
Skunks are not known to change their stripes, unlike some folks we know.
can do all the treaty-crushing live fire practice they want on the Great Lakes, but a determined illegal can still
skunkskulk across the border. Actually, many an Eastern European has done this sucessfully by stowing away in ship balast water.why not just kill it?
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It’s not an endangered species AFAIK. It’s a single animal, of the kind that often gets run over by cars and trucks anyway.
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Just exterminate it. Then, burn it (or otherwise dispose of it in a way that’s least likely to create problems in Canada with other varmints living on the skunk being released into the environment.
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I love animal species. I have no love for an individual wild animal though. I know, this makes me an odd fish, but really — why undergo so much cost for a single skunk?
There’s precedent.
They sent Argeo Paul Cellucci back to Massachusetts.
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we can’t send him back?
The other Republican governor to serve under an assumed name…..
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Oh G.W……..
…wouldn’t mind adopting the skunk as a pet. Suitably de-stinked and neutered, of course.
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It’s not unheard of for USians to take skunks as pets (de-stinked and neutered).
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On the subject matter of the post, it is my understanding that, if a US air carrier brings an “undocumented (human) alien” into the US, and that alien is denied entry, that air carrier is required to put the alien on the next plane to his or her port of embarcation. Maybe the Canadians should require the same here. Return the skunk to the US embarcation point, by plane, and let the Americans sort it out.
Aw, how could you say those mean things? Just look at the cute, little, fuzzy-wuzzy…EEEEEEW!…BLAM!
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Now, back to the curling match…
He could be the latest illegal immigrant to work on Mitt’s lawn.
Follow-up: The skunk made it back to California. Trace Nealy, the morning-drive DJ for KFYV 105.5 FM, in cooperation with Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico, drove to Toronto to pick up the skunk.
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The photos of the skunk’s trip to Torrance was much more comfortable than the Ontario trip experienced by Mitt’s dog.
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