Boxes of skunks left outside New Westminster animal services office

Nancy Millar wants the good citizens of New Westminster, B.C., to stop leaving boxed skunks at thefront gate of her office.

It's happened twice in recent days, said Millar, the city's senior animal services director.

"We don't deal with wildlife ...I don't know why they were brought here," she said.

The first box contained a mother and baby.The second box which was helpfully labelled, "skunk, please be careful" contained only a baby. Both boxes were dumped when the facility was closed.

New Westminster Animal Services normally deals with domestic animals like dogs and cats.

"If peoplehadcontacted us first we would have told them a better direction to go than to leaveskunks in a box at the front gate," said Millar.

Staff don't know who dumped the skunks or how they were captured.

The animals werenot ill or injured but were "totallyterrified at being boxed up and having to come into close contact with humans unnecessarily," according to a post on social media.

Millar says the situation wasn't as stinky as some might assume because baby skunks don't have the capacity to spray very much or very far.

"They can't do a lot of damage," she said. "The other thing is they need to be standing on solidground because they sort of hunker down into their back legs to shoot."

According to Millar, people should consult experts like Critter Care Wildlife Society before trying to capture urban wildlife or nuisance animals.

The three skunks have been transferred to a Critter Care facility in Langley.