Roselle skunk with head in jar sprays rescuers four times
There's a skunk strutting around Schaumburg who doesn't know how lucky he is.
When Roselle police found him last Thursday, he was lying with his head stuck in a peanut butter jar along Irving Park Road. Officers notified the Golf Rose Animal Hospital in Schaumburg.
“Police don't like to work with skunks,” said Charles Bulson, an administrator at the hospital. “If the smell gets in their car, it's over.”
The skunk managed to spray four times as hospital employees spent hours trying to free him — both at the scene and back at the hospital, Bulson said.
At first, staff thought they could free the skunk at the scene with a special sheet and drugs to calm him.
“When we got there we tried to pull that jar off his head,” Bulson said. “We tried and tried and it just would not come off.”
So they drugged the skunk, wrapped him in the sheet and put him in a cat carrier. Then they put the cat carrier in a dog carrier and drove him to the hospital.
There they used a pair of metal cutters to put a slit in the side of the jar, loosening it. Once free, the skunk climbed out of its cage and ran off across the hospital's parking lot — but not before trying once again to spray those who saved him.
Other than the smell, Bulson said, “skunks are harmless creatures who are really very friendly. They're not a threat to humans.”
Employees were able to dodge the skunk's spray for the most part, but the smell lingered in the hospital for a while. The skunk did mange to nail some syringe equipment that cost about $150 and had to be thrown out.
“It was in the air. My car smelled for two or three days,” Bulson said.
Hospital employees nicknamed the skunk “Sheila” in honor of the Roselle police officer who called the animal hospital.
Bulson said that spring is a popular season for skunks, who like to hang out around trash containers, decks and patios. If a dog gets sprayed, it will take five or six months for the smell to wear off even if they're washed using a special shampoo, he said.