Well, you can get pet skunks. They have their scent glands taken out so they don't smell. Skunks are supposed to be awesome pets.
"Several key themes of the novels, such as the rejection of religion and the abuse of power in a fictionalised version of the Catholic Church, were diluted in the adaptation. Director Weitz said "in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots", but that the organization portrayed in his film would not directly match that of Pullman's books. Instead, the Magisterium represents all dogmatic organizations.[29] Weitz said that New Line Cinema had feared the story's anti-religious themes would make the film financially unviable in the U.S., and so religion and God ("the Authority" in the books) would not be referenced directly."
I really enjoyed the movie. I also have the books upstairs, and didn't even notice it was about Religion (or leaving Religion, or whatever) until someone told me a few weeks before the movie came out.
The movie flopped in the USA, but made over twice it's budget worldwide.