Skunk makes stink in Berkeley

BERKELEY, Calif., July 11 (UPI) -- A retired judge has become embroiled in a stink with the city of Berkeley, Calif., over a skunk.

Former administrative law judge Wilson Ogg, 78, said he had called the city about a skunk roaming his property and was told to should trap it himself and release it a mile away, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Wary of being bitten or sprayed as well as reluctant to drop his problem on somebody else's property, Ogg researched state law and found it was permitted to kill skunks, coyotes, possums, moles, starlings and rodents without a license in California.

When the skunk sprayed the son of one of his workers, Ogg ordered the animal drowned in a pond on his property -- then called animal control to come pick up the body.

When Officer Karen Neil arrived, she found the waterlogged skunk barely alive and called police, who detained Ogg for about 90 minutes, he told the newspaper.

Ogg, a 40-year resident of Berkley, said he plans to file a complaint against the city.

As for the skunk, Ogg said the last time he saw it, it was alive.