:dubious:
Since when has not having the facts kept dopers from posting here???
At least you had some facts. Even if they weren’t the complete facts. Posting an informed, if not expert, opinion is the way fight ignorance here. Especially when it engenders responsible feedback which provides more facts. So don’t stop!!
Probably with about as much success as with any other wild animal who is not afraid of you. Which means maybe; I have made friends with raccoons at my bird feeder but it’s not easy, and using food might be considered cheating.
The only one I know of for sure was the St. Louis Zoo, which years ago had several, then one more when we gave them our family pet (see below). All the zoo animals were deodorized, since the public would be at risk otherwise, not to mention the keepers.
I don’t put much credence into that. Only a vet or someone with a better knowledge of skunk anatomy can say for sure, but I don’t think there is anything about the legs that affects the spray glands and muscles. I think the scruffy-neck grabber would get a real eyeful. Maybe the pest control guy was trying to get you to try, snipe-hunt style, to pick up a skunk so he could be a good laugh at your expense?"
A Skunk Story
Onceuponatime, my uncle decided our family needed a skunk for a pet, so he set a live trap for one in the woods. I don’t know how he planned to limit the catch to just a skunk, but it worked, and we caught one. The local vet was called, he anesthetized the animal and removed the glands.
But a few days later, a neighborhood girl was playing with the skunk and it got away. Doubly bad, since not only were we out one (1) gland-less skunk, but the animal didn’t know it no longer had any defense.
But we just had to have a skunk. The trap was set again, one was caught again, and the vet came out again. But this time there was no charge.
That’s right, it was the same skunk! Stupid or lucky? Anyway, we took it home, named it Tinkerbell, and kept her in the basement where she held down the bug population and learned to eat out of our hands.
We had to remember to tell any workmen or meter readers who went into the basement, “Oh, by the way, there’s a skunk down there. But she won’t hurt you – just give her a cookie.”
A deodorized (gland-less) skunk has no smell, BTW.
The time came for us to take a long vacation, but kennels don’t board skunks and it would have been cruel to let her go into the woods. Luckily, we knew the head of the St. Louis Zoo, who accepted Tinkerbell, who had grown a bright white stripe and was much prettier than the other zoo animals whose stripes had turned yellow.
Tinkerbell lived at the zoo for years. Every summer, the kids would capture bugs in the schoolyard and the zookeeper would let us get behind the spectator bars so we could hand-feed live grasshoppers. Delectable to the skunks, and the kids would squeal with icky delight.
By any chance were you dressed as un chat noir and had somebody accidentally painted une raie blanche down your backside?
Le Yikes!
Well, une chatte. Pépé swings zat way, non!
C’est dommage 
To the contrary, my friend. I have learned immense amounts from your contributions. My intent was solely to point out that both you and lissener were giving accurate answers, based on your knowledge, even though they were apparently contradictory, because it’s one of those “judgment call” issues in biology.
A parallel from ornithology: What orders are Diatryma, Presbyornis, and the flamingoes properly classified in? (That was rhetorical; no need for the 20-paragraph response post that covers all the options and the theoretical bases for each.)
I’ve encountered the little stinkers on many a camping trip. If you can keep your cool and try not to startle them(harder said than done, I’ll admit), they won’t really bother you.
On one trip, we were having dinner, and my girlfriend felt something brush up against her leg…you got it, a skunk. Somehow I convinced her not to freak out–“Just sit still, he’ll go away…”, I whispered rather emphatically. Sure enough, the critter moved on.
Just a minute later, there was an uproar at the campsite next to ours, as an entire family evacuated their picnic table. We got a big laugh out of that!
Well I live just a short distance from a marsh where the skunk population is alive and well. They just don’t stay in the marsh and they feel free to roam the streets. Needless to say I have had many skunk encounters, but luckily I have never been sprayed by one.
As others have said, they are shy animals. I’d like to think they usually don’t spray people (or animals) because they give you every chance to get away. (Still I have heard that it takes a while for a skunk to store up a good supply of the loathsome liquid and so they just aren’t going to waste it needlesly. I too have heard that they hate the smell just as much as everyone else does).
One thing no one has mentioned is the skunk “warning”. (I have received about 3 of these in my life). One night while walking down my street, I found myself within a few feet of a skunk. I heard this hissing and scratching sound. Lo and behold a skunk was staring right at me and letting me know he was not happy with my presence. Well, I slowly moved at a 90 degree angle away from him and slowly walked away. The first time I got this warning, I thought the skunk was rabid but I was told that these “warnings” are typical skunk behavior to give you one more chance to leave them alone. (and it works!!!)
I knew I’d posted about another of my Dad’s skunk adventures before. It’s the last story in the post.