NORTH RIDGEVILLE, OHIO—Got skunk? A sick one, a healthy one, a smelly one or maybe a domesticated one you’d like to find a good home for? Who you going to call? Deborah Cipriani should be your first choice. Cipriani, 47, really loves skunks. Not only does she share her home with 25 of them, give or take, but she also runs the nation’s only licensed 24/7 skunk rescue for domestic pet skunks called Skunk Haven. (www.skunkhaven.net).
Skunks may be rodents, and a mammal that most people do their best to avoid because of their odoriferous defense mechanism, but to Cipriani they are cuddly, charming animals that make great pets, come in many colors, and can even make good sleeping companions. That is provided they’ve been properly descented and have been domestically bred.
Cipriani’s two-story home has been turned into a virtual skunk habitat, with the little critters scampering around every room, separated into groups by baby gates. The house lacks much furniture. Instead there are cages everywhere, which she says is necessary to comply with state laws, but many of her four-legged companions have free rein.
Homemade sleeping dens, litter boxes and cages make up most of the floor and living space. Veterinary medicine, vitamin supplements and food bowels line the cabinets and countertops. Cipriani has makes sure none of her four-legged occupants escape by securing the doors with latches, and she built wooden ramps that run the length of her stairway so the skunks can move more freely up and down. She’s even got one attached to her bed for those who enjoy a good nap atop the sheets or under the blanket when they want.
“These are like our kids,” she told a reporter from a local TV station. “They train you. They’re not an easy animal to take care of. They’re not like ferrets, dogs or cats. You always got to cook for them.”
Cipriani rises every day at 5 a.m. for the skunks first feeding, which she and her boyfriend Kevin Wilson prepare the night before, filling dozens of little bowels with fresh vegetables, fruit cooked chicken and some dog food. “They don’t have a food that you can just open up and feed them,” she said. The whole process is repeated in the evening, and when the dinner bell rings, skunks skitter around her in a brood waiting for their turn at the bowels. Some eat on the floor or on the beds; others are put back in their cages to avoid skunk-fights over leftovers.
Cipriani’s obsession began on a camping trip in the 1980’s when she came across a couple of wild skunks which she discovered behind her tent. She says she had a nice “chat” with them.
When her mother died in 2000, the animals helped to treat her depression. Her first skunk was her beloved Daisy. “Daisy was my teacher in the skunk world,” she told a reporter. When Daisy became ill, Cipriani discovered how little local vets knew about skunks and treating their health problems. It was then that she met Dr. Frank Krupka, a nearby vetenarian, and together they began setting the medical standards for pet skunks. They established skunk body temperature and blood normals, which she says the text books had all wrong.
“Now we can look at kidney function, liver function, blood, glucose, calcium , and look at some really important serum chemistry values and make better determinations of skunk health just from that study,” Dr. Krupka, DVM at the Avon Lake Animal Clinic, told a reporter. In six years, working with Cipriani and her growing brood, he has become a skunk specialist.
Many of Cipriani’s skunks are orphans which she rescues from owners who can no longer care for them. “Skunks feelings get hurt very easily and they don’t forget,” she explained. “They may leave little surprises on your pillow or elsewhere or they may never trust you again.”
Cipriani also handles skunk adoptions, finding good homes the animals. At any given time, anywhere from 25 to 40 skunks inhabit her home, and she knows them all by name.
“We’re raising skunk awareness,” she told a reporter. She says she gets calls and emails night and day from skunk owners around the globe, as far away as the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. And for the past six years, she has held an annual “SkunkFest” weekend in September that brings hundreds of skunk lovers from all over the country, even as far away as the Netherlands.
The Festival is dedicated to Daisy, who passed away early in 2006. Cipriani built a memorial to Daisy in one of her home’s bedrooms, and just looking at it still brings tears to her eyes. “She was the smartest skunk I’ve ever known,” she said. “And my best friend.” Skunks compete in contests, and are judged by the texture of their fur, the color, weight (which ranges from 6 to 10 pounds), conformation—their eyes, nose, ears, and nails. They’re all breeder born. There’s even a skunk costume contest, complete with cute hats.
Unlike dogs, cats and other domestic pets, owners must obtain licenses to possess a skunk, which must be purchased from a federally and state licensed breeder or dealer. And some states and local communities ban the ownership of pet skunks altogether.
And Cipriani warns that skunk ownership isn’t for everybody. Her website is dedicated to helping people decide whether purchasing a skunk is right for them, and gives many details about skunk care and health/food issues, and a list of legal breeders and knowledgeable Vets in different areas of the country.
“A skunk is not a pet for everybody,” she told a reporter. “You have to have patience and time to cook for them, but it could be the best pet you’ve ever had.”
Cipriani loves her skunks so much she often sleeps with up to eight of them in her queen-sized bed, leaving her boyfriend to fend for himself in another bedroom. “We need a bigger bed,” she laughed.
She warns that skunks are still wild animals, and it is illegal to capture a skunk from the wild and keep it as a pet. Only those raised by actual breeders can be adopted as pets, as long as it’s legal in that particular locality.
Cipriani’s Skunk Haven rescue is a non-profit corporation not funded by the government, so donations are always welcome.
For additional information, check out www.skunkhaven.net on the web.
From press and news reports.