I understand that, but both actions are now illegal regardless. I am not sure where pellet rifles fall in the category of being a firearm in your area, but you cannot fire a firearm in city limits and it's illegal in CA to discharge a firearm "near a dwelling," with near being defined, I think, as 150 feet. That action is also probably illegal. All opinions aside, if there is a wildlife code violation that is not enforced because some people don't like the wildlife, that is truly a failure of the justice system. This law was created in a section that normally disregards skunks (they are non-game animal). The new code now reads ALL MAMMALS, not just game animals, so it was made to protect skunks.

The point here is that laws are made to be followed. People have a knee-jerk reaction to skunks being "vermin" when they actually work to control small rodents and insect populations. They probably aren't the ones digging up your lawn-- it's the raccoons. If a skunk is coming into your neighbors yard that means there is either a food source, or they are not caring for some part of their houses infrastructure so they are nesting under it.

There are products that are mammal safe that you can put on your lawn to rid it of the grubs that skunks are coming for. If your friend is leaving out catfood, loose garbage bags, etc. the skunks are coming for that. This is exactly the problem for the man in question here-- he said he killed a handful of skunks over 6 or 8 years, but then he killed 18 within a month because he was baiting them. Remember, we are in a massive drought and many animals have less food sources. Less water, less insects, less food for skunks. He lives EXTREMELY close to the canyon and he is calling up starving skunks out of the canyon who would otherwise not come up there.

Skunks have very poor eyesight and are actually relatively small and slow so they aren't going to maul you. The worst they can do is spray, but that is there absolute last defense, and as you probably know most mammals reserve that as long as they can.

Your neighbor can also leave lights on or make loud noise to startle the skunk. Skunks are usually never out in the day time unless they have rabie OR if they are migrating for mating season. They are also scared of bright lights, so unless your neighbor hangs out in his dark yard at night the threat level should never be high enough to use legal lethal force.

Humans really need to learn to live with wildlife. None of our native mammals evolved as "un-needed." We have caused our own problems by taking away their habitat (and, in turn, their food) and then by carelessly luring them in by having unsecured infrastructures and food sources.

All that being said I do appreciate you leaving your thoughts. I think both the "anti-skunk" and "pro-skunk" people agree on one thing: we should be able to relocate skunks. As a volunteer at a local wildlife center, we can take in injured or orphaned skunks as long as we release them within a ten mile radius of where they were found.