North Vancouver neighbours rally to save skunk with plastic lid stuck around its neck

When Bryan and Mira O’Connor first saw a video from the woods near their North Vancouver home of a skunk with a plastic dome lid wrapped tightly around its neck, they knew they had to do something.

“It was so thin and moving so much slower than the other skunks I’ve seen in the neighborhood, and I was really concerned,” said Bryan O’Connor.

“From that moment on, my husband, myself and our neighbours were trying to see if we could catch this skunk and get this plastic off of it,” said Mira. “It was really heart wrenching. I often thought, 'I can’t go to bed with this poor skunk wandering around.'”

For the next month, they tried catching the skunk by tossing a wet blanket over it and by setting a live trap, which only managed to snag a large raccoon.

“The whole big raccoon family around was very upset. They were waiting for him to come out. Of course we released him right away. At that point, we realized we really needed some help,” said Mira.

They enlisted the help of the Critter Care Wildlife Rescue Society. Last week, volunteer Cathy Kenning was dispatched and managed to snag the emaciated skunk with a large net, nearly a month after it was first spotted behind the Safeway in Lynn Valley.

“(It's a) huge relief,” said Bryan. “Cathy is a professional and she knows exactly how to contain the skunk so we don’t get sprayed, and none of us got sprayed. There was just the tiniest scent in the air, but it’s nothing knowing you’re helping save a creature's life.”

Kenning immediately cut the lid off the skunk’s neck.

“I could see right away it was pretty bad wound that went right (around) the whole neck and front leg area,” she said.

The volunteer drove the injured skunk to Critter Care in Langley, which sees cases of wild animals with plastic wrapped around their necks at least a dozen times a year.

The design of the clear plastic domed lids is especially dangerous for skunks, who have poor eyesight and rely on their sense of smell. The animals stick their heads inside the cups and the lids pop off and remain around their necks, digging into their bodies and leaving deep wounds.

The O’Connors would like to see the lids redesigned to be safer for urban wildlife.

“We need to either make these dome lids paper or maybe perforated. But for right now, the best thing to do if you have a cup and one of these lids is separate them,” said Mira.

She’s relieved the skunk they rescued, who’s been named Cupcake by staff at Critter Care, is expected to make a full recovery. The animal will be returned to the woods in three to four weeks, and the O’Connors wouldn’t miss it.

“We are all waiting. Cathy will bring it and we’re all going to have a release day,” said Mira.

“I’m definitely going to be there for the release,” said Bryan. “I want to see her rejoin with her family.”