I'm binging to wonder about buddy5. I think a moderator should kill this thread.

Sorry guys, no harm meant. My thought process was to ensure an instant death thereby respecting the animal rather than knowingly letting it suffer for some length of time. Which I might add, happens when you drown it and that was suggested by others earlier. Letting it suffer while it drowns seems rather disgusting to me hence the reason for trying to work through a more humane and instant process.

Due to the legal restraints placed on us in Ohio, I was trying to figure out how to best operate within the parameters I have to work in. I have the process down for coons or possums in a cage trap but if skunks are involved, the dispatching process is considerably more difficult. As I mentioned, others appear to be OK with the animal suffering while it drowns but I wouldn't be able to do that.

Cysquatch, how would you dispatch a cage trapped skunk while living in a neighborhood? Would you have a different method that hasn't been discussed yet? I'm quite open to learning something new if it's quick and humane. I have no issue dispatching other animals, skunks are the problem.

In terms of educating myself:

Nuisance trapping professionals around here use cage traps which I also have and use. Secondly, they dispatch the animals with a CO2 box which I can also do if I were to build one. However, according to a training manual on nwco.net Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (which details simple plans for building one) it takes skunks about 30 minutes to expire.

So that is the professional method. Maybe you have a better solution?

Good grief. INSTANT DEATH OR NOTHING!!!
Good luck with that. You are dreaming, my friend. The skunk pole isn't instant, drowning isn't, either. Nor a knock on the head, a heart attack, a stroke, electrocution, lethal injection, poison, hanging, getting run over by a car, most car accidents, getting eaten by another animal, starving, disease, and the list goes on.
It is admirable to be as humane as possible, and most here strive for best practices, but death is never an instantaneous, flash-boom occurence.
I'm sorry.
On the other hand, neither is birth....

Does anyone know if there are legal issues about using acetone to euthanize nuisance skunks? Of course if you keep your mouth shut there aren't any but just asking.