If you noticed a horrible smell near Lo-Rise in the past two weeks, don’t worry: it wasn’t you. Although late night skunk sightings have become frequent occurrences on campus, the lingering smell in the area is due to a brutal killing that occurred right outside a student’s doorway.
It was on Friday night, Sept. 29, that Resident Advisor Peter Hill ’08 witnessed a skunk being attacked from his Hi-Rise fifth floor window. According to Hill, he was in his room when he heard a loud, thwacking noise outside. He went to his window to see four men chasing a skunk around the pavilion between Lo-Rise and Hi-Rise. The men were carrying what Public Safety has claimed to be a carpet rod, a long metal pole used for storing rolls of carpet. According to Hill, they were beating the skunk with it as well as throwing a white ball at it.
“They were definitely not Wesleyan students,” he recalled. “They were around the ages of 19 to the early twenties.”
According to Hill, the men eventually cornered the skunk in front of Lo-Rise apartment E4, where they continued to beat the skunk until it died. The men then left, only to return with a bucket of water, which they poured on the skunk. They then used the empty bucket to cover it up.
Joanna Brownson ’08, a resident of E4, discovered the carcass the next morning.
“There was this pungent smell coming from outside, like on our front door,” she said.
When she opened the door, she saw the bucket with the skunk tail sticking out from under it.
“The skunk must have sprayed our door because it smelled like garlic and other strong odors,” Brownson said.
The residents of E4 called Physical Plant, who came immediately and removed the skunk. The police and Public Safety also both arrived on the scene. Unfortunately, the skunk’s killers have not been caught.
According to Connecticut animal cruelty laws, the perpetrators could be fined up to five thousand dollars and/or face a prison sentence of up to five years for the crime. The Middletown Police Department, however, was careful to stress that each individual incident is judged on its own merit. Circumstances such as killing wild animals that are trapped in residents’ houses would not necessarily merit arrest.
Despite consequences that can include temporary or even permanent blindness if one is sprayed directly in the eyes, provoking or approaching skunks is not unheard of, according to young Traverse Square resident Oneal Colon. Colon stated he was coming back from the movies one evening last weekend and spotted a skunk on Church Street. According to Colon, as a joke, he told his friend that he was going to catch the skunk. He ran after the skunk, trying to pick it up, but it ran under the porch of a house. When asked if he realized that skunks spray people with their anal scent glands, Colon responded positively.
“I just thought it would be fun to see if I could catch it because we keep seeing them around here so much,” Colon said.
Skunk sightings are indeed nothing new for residents living in or around the Traverse Square apartments, which are located between Church Street and College Street next to the Lo-Rise units.
Ty West, who lives in Traverse Square, said that he saw two skunks in the front parking lot of the Square around midnight last week.
“They were eating something that smelled pretty bad,” Ty West commented. “When I walked past them, they didn’t move. They were pretty brave.”
Ty’s brother Jay also saw skunks near the area where the attack occurred.
“We were playing tag in that small courtyard around 12:30 one night. I was hiding in that area over there [points straight at the buildings in Lo-Rise] when I ran right by a skunk. He didn’t move either,” Jay remembered.
Whether skunks are spotted around buildings or in residences, people should exercise caution, remembering that skunks are wild animals. To report threatening or aggressive wildlife, call Public Safety at (860) 685-2345 or the Middletown Police Animal Control Office at (860) 344-3290.
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