Skunk lover says law
stinks
New rule forbids importing animals from other states, but Alabama
lacks breeders.
05/31/01
By PATRICIA CAVANAUGH STUMB
Times Staff Writer
patricias@htimes.com
To be loved by a skunk is to be truly
loved.
So says Beckie Mills, a Hazel Green
woman who has been raising and adoring domesticated, descented skunks for the
past 15 years. As president of the Alabama Skunks as Pets organization, she
preaches the joy of skunk-rearing.
''They're just so sweet, cuddly and
loyal,'' Mills said, feeding her smoke-colored skunk named Myrrh vanilla wafers
and dried cranberries from her hand. ''They like to sleep all curled up around
your neck.
''And they're entertaining. Watching
them slide across the floor and play is better than a movie.''
But the problem is, a
fairly new regulation imposed by the Alabama Division of Wildlife and
Freshwater Fisheries restricts the sale or importation of skunks from other
states.
Mills said Alabama has no licensed
domesticated skunk breeders. If Alabamians want skunks as pets, they are pretty
much out of luck.
''And you certainly don't want to
capture one from the wild to raise it,'' Mills said. ''Wild skunks carry diseases.''
Allan Andress, assistant chief of
enforcement for the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, said there
are two reasons for the restriction - to safeguard Alabama's indigenous
wildlife, and to protect human life.
''Anytime you move any form of life from
one state to another, you run the risk of it out-competing native animals and
of introducing new diseases that the indigenous breeds don't have immunity
against,'' he said.
''Imported coyotes introduced a new
strain of rabies to our state, and that's just something we'll have to live
with from now on.''
Rabies is the major concern with skunks.
Andress said all skunks carry rabies; Mills said only rabid skunks do and that
non-vaccinated dogs or wild raccoons are much more likely to spread the disease
than domesticated skunks.
''There's actually more chance of a cat
or dog passing rabies onto our skunks than the other way around,'' she said.
While Mills thinks there is a certain
prejudice against skunks, it's not the only animal targeted in wildlife and
freshwater fisheries regulation 220-2-.26. Walking catfish, piranha, black
carp, mongoose, jack rabbits, deer, elk, moose, caribou, coyote, fox, raccoons
and wild turkeys would also be turned away at the border.
The Ruby Fur Farm in New Sharon, Iowa,
is where Mills has bought several of her skunks. She can't do that any more,
even though she believes the farm - which has been breeding animals since 1932
- produces top quality, disease-free animals. Breeders remove the skunks' scent
glands to protect buyers from the animals' best-know characteristic.
Randy Ruby, son of the deceased founder
of the farm, said a 6-foot-high fence keeps his ''few hundred'' domesticated
skunks safe from other rabies-carrying animals. He said he is entirely confident
than the animals have not been exposed to rabies, but that's not good enough
for the state of Alabama.
''I'm sure the skunks are raised in very
safe environments, but since we don't have any control of how they're raised,
we have no way of determining their health,'' Andress said. ''And for a lot of
the diseases, there aren't any tests.''
There's just one test for rabies. The
animal must be killed and its brain tissue analyzed.
That's what happened to Aspen, Mills'
national grand champion skunk, in December 1998. A friend visiting Mills pulled
away a bag that Aspen was playing with, and the skunk bit her, ''just like a
kitten or puppy would have done,'' she said.
The friend became afraid that she might
have contracted rabies, ''even though Aspen had never been outside, never
exposed to anything that would have given her rabies,'' Mills said. The skunk
was confiscated and destroyed.
The test proved Aspen did not have
rabies.
After that happened, Mills launched a campaign
to have the United States approve a vaccine for rabies in skunks. Canada
already has such a vaccine.
Huntsville was the site of the National
Skunks As Pets Convention, which was attended by 400 humans and 57 skunks.
Besides giving skunks the chance to compete in categories such as best color,
most talented and best personality, publicity surrounding the convention
reminded people that a skunk is a pet option.
''The better we promote the concept of
skunks as pets, the better it is for all of us,'' Mills said. ''I want people
to understand that domesticated skunks aren't smelly and that they don't give
you rabies.''
Mills said the 15 members of Alabama
Skunks as Pets will continue to collect data to try to convince the state to
change its mind about allowing skunks to be imported.
''We're sensitive to their desire to
want to have a skunk, but our public responsibility is to safeguard our
indigenous wildlife,'' Andress said. ''That has to take precedence over an
individual's wish to go get an out-of-state skunk.''