SK: UK breeders

[Mike]

Hi all, just joined!  I live in England.  Yes, OLD England... :)

I've read the last couple of months' posts on the archive, so I'm 
familiar with the kind of thing that gets discussed here.

I'm not ready for a pet skunk yet because I rent a small place and I 
probably also don't have the time to care for one properly at the 
moment, but I am interested in them and I think they are lovely animals.

I'm finding out as much as I can about them, and I read an article in 
a UK newspaper online (The Guardian) that criticised the keeping of 
skunks in the UK for various reasons, many of which I was not 
entirely convinced about (e.g. they said they are never truly 
domesticated like cats and dogs, which is probably true but I find it 
irrelevant - I think the same could be said of many other pets, like 
ferrets for example, which are relatively commonly kept here).

One statement that I noticed, and which I had never heard before, was 
that they said that the de-scenting operation was not legally 
available here.  There is a feeling among animal care professionals 
that it is inhumane.  This puzzles me a little because people get 
their pets neutered and spayed all the time.  Isn't that inhumane 
too, under those standards?

The result, according to the article, is that pet skunks in the UK 
are often not de-scented (I'd call that fairly irresponsible), or had 
been de-scented without anaesthetic (I'd call that very cruel indeed, 
and also it would probably be asking for trouble with respect to the 
animal's future temperament).

Does anyone know about this?  Lots of skunk info sites say that you 
can keep them as pets in the UK, but they never seem to mention 
anything about the availability of de-scenting and/or neutering 
here.  Perhaps breeders are able to do it under licence?  I don't 
even know of any UK breeders yet, but it's early days in my research!

I look forward to your replies.
Skunks rock!


Mike