Do you ever watch the Alaska shows on Discovery? They trap beavers in underwater snares. The beavers drown. Does that strike you as inhumane? I don't.

They trap fur bearing animals that then freeze to death. Does that strike you as inhumane? I don't.

They shoot unsuspecting deer, caribou, moose. Does that strike you as inhumane? I shoot deer and I don't.

Have you ever fished? Does fileting them while they are alive or throwing them in a cooler to freeze strike you a inhumane? It doesn't to me.

If I shot the skunk would that have been more humane in your opinion?

It's interesting. When I first read your post I thought that drowning a skunk or any animal is inhumane. But your points made me re-think this some. I hunt and I dont find shooting a deer to be inhumane primarily bc I hunt for food, I hunt older deer, etc. That said, I do still find a difference btwn hunting/shooting and drowning an animal. Perhaps it's just the optics of it, perhaps that it's nearly instantaneous death versus drowning which sounds awful. Perhaps it's because I hunt for the meat and not just to end the death. If you shot the skunk I would likely have less objection to the method.

Either way, I see your point. I wouldn't do it, but I get why you do and I wouldn't cast aspersions against you for doing it your way.

Thanks for you comments. When hunting, we attempt for near instantaneous death. But it doesn't always happen. I've shot deer thru the heart and yet they have run 50 meters. Sometimes, we have to track a wounded animal before killing them.

I will consider shooting them in the future. From a distance that is.

But go back to the original post. Windy said that firearms or a bow were not an option. So I mentioned how I dealt with it which caused the backlash. Where I live, firearms are an option.

I don't have to watch idiot TV shows to know what goes on in Alaska - I live here.

Decade after decade I've filled my freezer with caribou, moose, sheep, and salmon. So I'm no stranger to killing. Not that I'm proud of killing, but I make that choice to provide food for myself and my family.

And I'll repeat: Killing is one thing. Dragging a caged animal into a lake to drown is quite another.

And as an ethical hunter, I'm disturbed by your attempt to conflate your inhumane caging and drowning with hunting for food. It's people like you who give hunters a bad name.

Over and out.

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Seriously, no, I still don't understand why it's a problem.

I don't live in US and I've only seen skunks a couple of times when visiting.

I do know that skunks spray as a defensive behaviour when they feel under threat from a potential predator. I'd have thought that an easy solution is simply not to put yourself or the skunk in a position where it feels under threat. Pretty much as the cyclist did in that video posted of a skunk with her young.

Is it so bad to educate a child in having an understanding and appreciation of the natural world?

Yep, gotta agree with this too.

I live in a rural area and I grew up hunting. My dad taught me to respect animals. If you kill an animal, it better be because you plan to eat it or otherwise have a damn good reason (imminent death to you). We were out there for a day hunting but the animals have to survive day after day. As humans, we do nothing but make this survival more difficult.