Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1913 — Not for His Odor But Because He Kills Many Pests. [ARTICLE]

Not for His Odor But Because He Kills Many Pests.

The skunk was Monday added to the list of natural resources which Should be conserved or protected before exterminated. The department of agriculture, classifying this animal as “ of great economic importance” in a statement made public Tuesday, asks that it receive the same protection that the federal agents now are compelled to exercise in the prevention of bird Slaughter. “Some of the most destructive insects in agriculture are such as do their work below ground and out of reach of any method that the farmer can 'apply, and it is against many of these that the skunk is an inveterate enemy.” The statement asserts. “Notwithstanding all this, there is probably not an animal that is as ruthlessly slaughtered as is this one.”