Yearly hunting seasons in Clearfield County have traditionally seen hunters find and shoot buck, doe, turkeys, grouse and small game with either firearms or bows and arrows. Specialty hunters also go after coyotes and raccoons. But skunks?
When an area is overrun by skunks, some local folks trap them in cages and after, covering the cage with an old blanket, set the skunk free, often miles away. These trappers need to be careful. Skunks can carry rabies and no one wants to suffer being sprayed.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission recommends this sort of delicate skunk removal and does not sponsor a skunk season for hunters.
Doreen Good, originally from Graham Township, supplied the photo of her grandfather, Hillman Hubler, who, as a young man, hunted skunks in order to sell their pelts. He is shown proudly posing with his kills.
The wearing of natural animal fur has come under attack in recent decades. Opponents of the practice see it as inhumane to kill a creature, simply for its decorative fur. Who would want to wear a skunk fur anyway? A skunk never achieved the popularity that fox furs once did.
As it turns out, skunk pelts were fashionable a century ago, especially in Europe. A skunk is an animal native to the Americas, so Europeans, unlike Americans, probably didn’t associate the fur with the animals rank spray and smell.
Online sources say the skunk hairs measure one to two inches and are glossy. They are coarser than fox hairs. Skunks are nowhere near as cunning and evasive as foxes, so they are easier to approach.
The sources also say that a skilled skunk hunter has to shoot the animal in the heart and lung area, preferably with a .22-carbine rifle. That way, the scent sack is less likely to be released. A head shot will disable the skunk’s nervous system, causing the sack to let go all at once. That would be unpleasant, to say the least.
According to Mrs. Good, her grandfather, who lived his entire life in Graham Township, would sell his skunk pelts to a buyer in Philipsburg. Times were not easy when young Mr. Hubler was growing up, so the few extra dollars he earned from his skunk hunting skills were a welcome source of income.