Neighbors Angered by Plan to Trap Skunks, Opossums

Some neighbors are outraged over the plan of their homeowners association board to trap and remove wild skunks and opossums.

The trapping, set for Monday, is in the middle of the animals’ birthing season and could leave a host of motherless young, opponents said this week.

Unless the board agrees to postpone the trapping or release captured animals to relocation societies, homeowners say they will call in animal rights protest groups they have already contacted.

The neighborhood of 186 townhouses backs up to the wildlife-rich Bolsa Chica wetlands.

“When you buy a home near a natural area, it’s something you have to expect,” said Connie Boardman, with the Bolsa Chica Land Trust.

The homeowners association board wrote in a recent newsletter that skunks stink and carry rabies, opossums are “nature’s garbage disposal,” and both have to go. Board members would not comment further except to say that they feel the trapping is necessary.

Resident Margaret Clark, who has been leading the campaign to save the skunks and opossums, said the board told her the animals must be removed because of liability if an animal should attack somebody. They would not say if any attacks have occurred, Clark said, and she knows of no such incidents.

Homeowners associations do not need a permit to do the trapping, state officials said, as long as the animals are killed or released within the same county.

Wildlife and human populations have clashed often as Orange County has grown. Most recently, hundreds of wild rabbits at Seal Beach’s Leisure World narrowly escaped being shot in May after some people complained the neighborhood was being overrun. A public outcry persuaded city officials to call off the hunt. The rabbits were so abundant, wildlife experts said, because the area’s predatory foxes had been removed.