rep@grkermi.UUCP (Pete Peterson) (02/13/86)
In article <150@atux01.UUCP> hedden@atux01.UUCP (D. Hedden) writes: >In article <698@decwrl.DEC.COM>, kolling@decwrl.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) writes: >> >> > Recently I heard about for an anti-rape device consisting >> > of a breakable vial of skunk oil. The idea is this:.... >> > The odor would stay with the attacker for several days, making it >> > easier for police identification.... >> >> ... impression that tomato juice neutralizes skunk odor, so >> it's not clear how useful this would be for identification purposes. >Having used several quarts of tomato juice to deodorize my dog, >I can tell you that it will not remove the odor completely, but >it does tone it down considerably. It probably would be much more >effective on humans. > My comments have not much to do with the ORIGINAL subject of all this, but I at one time had two Golden Retrievers who occasionally thought it would be fun to try to befriend some of the local skunks (Goldens tend to try to befriend all other life forms). I had heard about the use of tomato juice for removal of the skunk odors and found it to be extremely messy to use and not very effective (perhaps it would be better on bare skin or short-haired dogs). I discovered a product called "Odor Mute" which was available from the local feed store. Odor Mute is a powder which you dissolve in water and then use the resulting solution to wash the dog. It is also supposed to be good for removing animal waste product odors from rugs, kennels, etc. but I used it only for the skunk odors. I found that this stuff worked much better than tomato juice, was much less messy, and also cheaper. It was not perfect -- there would still be a slight detectable skunk odor the next time the dog got wet -- perhaps another washing would have done the trick, but it was not enough of a problem to make it worthwhile.