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Skunk found hiding in garage
THIS tiny mite has been kicking up a stink in a Sheffield garage.
Baby skunk Jasmine was found squatting in a garage on Westbury Avenue, Chapeltown, and has since been taken in by the RSPCA.
Skunks, renowned for their smelly defence system, are not found in the wild in the UK and Jasmine, given her name by RSPCA staff, may be an abandoned or lost pet.
The little stinker was spotted about three weeks before the RSPCA caught up with her and when captured she weighed just two kilograms.
She does not have the usual black and white back and is completely white on her back with mottled markings on her legs.
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"Jasmine is quite friendly and used to being handled," said animal collection officer Julie Stoodley, who took Jasmine from the South Yorkshire rescue centre in Bawtry, Doncaster, to a ferret rescue centre in Lincolnshire.
"Although she is very boisterous and has already mastered stair climbing and jumping off things."
Jasmine is estimated to be between four and five months old - meaning she is still a baby or a 'kit' as young skunks are known.
She is the third skunk to be collected by the RSPCA in the UK in the last five months.
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is illegal to release a skunk into the wild as it is a non-native species.
"We are concerned that people may be getting hold of skunks and keeping them as pets without knowing how to care for them," said Julie.
Anyone with information about Jasmine's owners should contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234999.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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