How do you handle a skunk caught in a live trap????

I live in a predator rich environment. I think we have just about every predator you can imagine and I have been pretty successful in trapping them. The problem is that I have a wire live trap and we have tons of skunks around here. I know its just a matter of time before I catch one. My question is....what the heck do you do when you do catch one????? How do you dispatch it without paying the price???

very carefully

With a clothespin on your nose?

Cover it with a sheet or blanket, approaching slowly. A skunk can't spray unless it can get it's tail in the air, and it will stamp it's front feet repeatedly before it sprays.

Very, very carefully!!!

I'd recommend a tarp. A sheet is porous and will get saturated.

Good Luck!

Throw a tarp over the trap carefully. In fact, I'd throw the tarp over the cage before baiting it. Have it all set up for the possibility. Skunks won't spray in a enclosed container. They don't like the smell any more than anyone else. I don't know your usual method of dispatching predators so what you do from there is up to you. A bullet through the lungs is one method recommended to prevent spraying. Spine shots and head shots usually result in a big stink. Drowning them in a garbage can while still in the trap is another way to dispatch with minimal stink. The skunk may still spray, but the water will contain most of it. Or you can just release them in situ while the trap is covered by the tarp and try again for your target species. You are not specifically targeting skunks I gather from your post, so just releasing any captured would probably be your best option.

Good luck.

Quote:
In our recent attempts to foil the raccoon predators around here, we inadvertently live trapped a skunk. Fortunately, I had draped a tarp over the back half of the trap the night I set it b/c we were expecting rain and I didn't want the bait to get washed away. It turns out that was a good move. When I saw Pepe le Pew in there in the morning, I sloooowly approached the cage and pulled the tarp all the way over the cage. I then got a second piece of heavy duty construction grade plastic and draped that over the top of the tarp. Next, I took an old bed comforter and placed that on top. I secured the sides of those coverings with nearby rocks.
I then proceeded to hook up the tailpipe of my car with aluminum foil and a drain pipe and tucked it under the tarps. Twenty minutes or so later, Pepe was asleep and pushing up daisies shortly thereafter. That's how we dispatched all of the critters we caught. No mess, no drama.

Rocky. Our first trap tenant. He was the SMALLEST (that trap is 42 inches long).

Very carefully? Clothespins? Sheets? Reeealllly???? We have to do better than that before I am going to approach a trapped skunk!!!

I cover the trap with a tarp and slowly carry it to the edge of the field where I dispatch him. One word of warning tho despite what some have said they can and do spray whether they can raise their tails or not, and they don't always stomp their feet as a warning either. I've been eye witness to it happening more than once.

Quote:
In our recent attempts to foil the raccoon predators around here, we inadvertently live trapped a skunk. Fortunately, I had draped a tarp over the back half of the trap the night I set it b/c we were expecting rain and I didn't want the bait to get washed away. It turns out that was a good move. When I saw Pepe le Pew in there in the morning, I sloooowly approached the cage and pulled the tarp all the way over the cage. I then got a second piece of heavy duty construction grade plastic and draped that over the top of the tarp. Next, I took an old bed comforter and placed that on top. I secured the sides of those coverings with nearby rocks.
I then proceeded to hook up the tailpipe of my car with aluminum foil and a drain pipe and tucked it under the tarps. Twenty minutes or so later, Pepe was asleep and pushing up daisies shortly thereafter. That's how we dispatched all of the critters we caught. No mess, no drama.

Rocky. Our first trap tenant. He was the SMALLEST (that trap is 42 inches long).
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/43104_7-11-10_raccoon.jpg

Awesome advice!!!! Thanks!!!