Which animal, if any, can perfectly skin another in northeast PA?

Question

So we found an opposum, skinless in the middle of our yard, the bowels scattered over a small area (like it was dragged). The fur later found towards the house, in near perfect condition.

Other than that the remainder of its body was not eaten/broken etc, only the flies got to it. It didn't seem like it was killed where it was found, just dragged.

Now we find a cat, but just the fur, one side, neatly pulled so you can see where the eyes/mouth etc is. It seems an animal had dragged the skin/fur to where it was (brush pile) by the small trail of fur leading to the rest of it. We haven't found the rest of it yet.

I do know she was pretty slow and about to have babies any day which made her any easy target I'm sure.

Is there an animal in northeast PA that does this? Just skins them basically?

..please keep answers real and no smartbutt ones, thanks!

Answer 1

us

Answer 2

Various mustelids are capable of eating the inards out of an animal and leaving the hide. Fishers always do this with porcupines, for obvious reasons. Weasels would be capable of doing this, but a possom would be more than one meal for a weasel, so if it were completly eaten, the weasel would have had to return two or more times to finish it off.

Do your neighbors eat possom? Was the belly neatly slit the entire length? Then it was humans.

Answer 3

My guess would be a neighborhood s****t. It's difficult for non-humans to do something like that, never mind doing it twice.

Answer 4

The only animal i know that can skin another animal perfectly (like you described) is the human animal.  

Do you have any neighborhood bully that seem to pick on smaller critters and kids a lot?