Meyer is trapper, fur harvester
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Everyone knows that personal encounters with skunks are to be avoided at all costs. The obnoxious scent they put out can linger in the air, skin, and clothes for months.
However, to Leonard "Mick" Meyer of rural Lincolnville, the skunk's spray is a valuable commodity. It is a prime ingredient used by trappers to lure animals to snares set for them.
Understandably, when Meyer finds a skunk in one of his traps, he keeps his distance and uses a syringe at the end of a six-foot pole to administer a toxic chemical.
After the animal is skinned, he uses another syringe to extract the "skunk essence" from its pouch within the body.
Meyer said the smell isn't an issue for him.
"It doesn't bother me," he said. "In fact, I don't mind the smell."
The amount of essence harvested varies. Meyer's best draw was 39ccs. Usually, he gets 10-15 ccs. The spray brings up to $10 per ounce and is sold to manufacturers who incorporate it into liquid lures.
Trappers purchase the lure in small bottles. A few drops are placed in a small hole in the ground, the hole is covered lightly with dry grass or other debris, and the trap is placed nearby. Wild animals are drawn to the smell and get caught in the trap.
Meyer began trapping animals as a youngster. He always was an outdoors person and liked to hang out in the woods. After graduating from Centre High School, he found a job and quit trapping for a while but picked it up again in the 1970s.
Although he has a full-time job as quality assurance crew leader at Raytheon Aircraft's Salina plant, he spends as much time outdoors as possible.
Every winter, during trapping season, which begins Nov. 17, he rises at 4 a.m. to check his traps. He uses foot traps to prevent damaging the main body of fur.
He has trapped at least 95 animals this season, including 23 skunks, 22 coons, three bobcats, four coyotes, and more than 40 possums.
Possums don't have much value.
"You get possums trapped up to get the good stuff," Meyer said.
He sets traps as far away as the Chase County line, 12 miles to the east.
After trapping and killing an animal, he brings it to a building on the farm and skins it, wearing surgical gloves to prevent disease. After washing the blood and dirt off the fur in cold water and hanging it out to dry, he turns it inside out and scrapes the fat and gristle off the skin.
"There's an art to it," he said, noting a sharp knife is paramount, and special care has to be taken to not puncture the skin.
In the final step, he places a wire stretcher inside the pelt and hangs it to dry.
If time is short and Meyer can't clean the skin immediately, he places it in a freezer.
He recently acquired a skinning machine which is motorized to assist in removing the skin from the carcass.
For a time in the early 1980s, Meyer also tanned skins and made caps from them. He did tanning for other people, as well.
His "green" (untanned) skins usually are sold sometime in January to a fur buyer for whatever the market brings. Possum furs are the least valuable, and bobcat furs are the most valuable.
Some trappers sell furs unscraped. They are sold as "in the grease." Some animals are sold whole.
Meyer said the fur market dropped drastically in December, so he isn't expecting to make much money.
"I do it because I like it," he said. "I like to be outdoors. There are very few days when I stay inside."
There is a practical side to Meyer's trapping enterprise. Peacocks, guineas, ducks, chickens, and geese are raised on his farm. All are prey for wild predators.
In December, he found the remnants of two young female peacocks in his yard. He suspects bobcats killed and ate them. He said coyotes especially like guineas. Every critter he can trap is one less danger to his flocks.
Sometimes people call Meyer and ask him to trap an animal for them if it is causing a problem.
He considers himself an amateur, noting that some men make their living from trapping. He said they can skin an animal much faster than he can.
He is a member of Kansas Fur Harvesters, which holds auctions three times a year. He also is a member of the National Trappers' Association and attends its conventions.
In August, he plans to retire from his job at Raytheon after more than 41 years. He is looking forward to having more time next winter for his favorite pastime.
