Help for a squirrel...

Foxhunter, hate to disillusion you but the reason the songbird count is going down is squarely down to the loss of habitat and intensive farming methods that destroy the birds' food supply. Round towns, pet cats (and I have 2) kill staggering numbers of songbirds every year and in more rural areas, magpies are also songbird killers. Magpies are flourishing because they are opportunistic feeders so the damage mankind has done to the country-side actually benefits them. And though grey squirrels are indeed classed as vermin they are only in Britain because they were imported by man. Like they say about the definition of a weed - it's just a plant but in the wrong place - so it is with grey squirrels. It's just a squirrel, shaped by thousands of years of evolution to fit a certain niche in their country of origin. Brought over to the UK, it's in the wrong place but for gods sake some compassion people! It's not the squirrels' fault they were brought over here and have a lifestyle that has made their population explode.
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Foxhunter, hate to disillusion you but the reason the songbird count is going down is squarely down to the loss of habitat and intensive farming methods that destroy the birds' food supply. Round towns, pet cats (and I have 2) kill staggering numbers of songbirds every year and in more rural areas, magpies are also songbird killers. Magpies are flourishing because they are opportunistic feeders so the damage mankind has done to the country-side actually benefits them. And though grey squirrels are indeed classed as vermin they are only in Britain because they were imported by man. Like they say about the definition of a weed - it's just a plant but in the wrong place - so it is with grey squirrels. It's just a squirrel, shaped by thousands of years of evolution to fit a certain niche in their country of origin. Brought over to the UK, it's in the wrong place but for gods sake some compassion people! It's not the squirrels' fault they were brought over here and have a lifestyle that has made their population explode.
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Utter rubbish!

You do not know nature!

I live in a very rural area, plenty of natural habitat, woodlands surround us, fields only grazed by cattle and sheep, downland with scrub close by but the birds are declining - why?

Grey squirrels will rob birds nests of the eggs, and will also take fledgelings.
They will decimate trees by barking them.

It was realised what a problem they were before WW2
1931 - A national anti-grey squirrel campaign is formed to combat the spread of grey squirrels.

1933 - The Destructive Imported Animals Act makes it illegal to import, release, or keep captive grey squirrels without a licence.

1944 - County War Agricultural Executive Committees issues free shotgun cartridges to registered clubs to reduce grey squirrel numbers. By the end of 1947 450 Grey Squirrel Shooting Clubs had killed 100,000 grey squirrels. Grey squirrels continued to spread.

1952 - Around 7,000 Grey Squirrel Shooting Clubs in existence but issue of free cartridges much abused. Forestry Commission argues for greater effort to control greys through national tail bounty.

1953 - First anti-grey squirrel propaganda on Radio 4’s The Archers. An experimental bonus system introduced to complement squirrel clubs; one shilling or two free cartridges paid per grey squirrel tail. The bounty is raised to two shillings in 1956. 1,520,304 grey squirrel bounties paid in five years with no effect on grey squirrel numbers. The system is abandoned in 1958.

1958 - Trapping shown to be more efficient than shooting grey squirrels.

1973 - The Squirrels order makes it legal to poison grey squirrels with warfarin in areas with no red squirrels.

2009 - 2012 - Grey squirrel numbers on mainland Britain continue to rise.

There are, like badgers, to many of them around and as they are unprotected (unlike badgers) I will do what I can to despatch as many of them that I can. I will do this humanely with a gun. Someone said magpies were to blame for the loss of song birds but the damage they do compared to squirrels is minimal.

http://www.arkive.org/grey-squirrel/sciurus-carolinensis/image-A21707.html

The only good grey squirrel is a dead one.
 
Yes of course, a planned cull programme works, but the release of one grey squirrel after a night in a warm bed will hardly caused the local population to sky rocket, or the local bird population to plummet.

Much of our wildlife in the uk is non native, it just depends on your scale of time as to how native you consider it. Beech trees, little owls are just two more accepted species that are not native :rolleyes:
 
Sqirrels might look cute, but they are a pain in the arse! We had a group (flock, family, whatever a group of the bloody things are called!) get into our loft, chewed all the insulation, wires, got into the sofits at the front of the house and night after night after sodding night we would hear them rolling acorns along the front of the house in the sofits! Got rid of them through pest control.

Can you tell I am not a fan of them!!!
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Utter rubbish!

You do not know nature!

I live in a very rural area, plenty of natural habitat, woodlands surround us, fields only grazed by cattle and sheep, downland with scrub close by but the birds are declining - why?

Grey squirrels will rob birds nests of the eggs, and will also take fledgelings.
They will decimate trees by barking them.

It was realised what a problem they were before WW2
1931 - A national anti-grey squirrel campaign is formed to combat the spread of grey squirrels.

1933 - The Destructive Imported Animals Act makes it illegal to import, release, or keep captive grey squirrels without a licence.

1944 - County War Agricultural Executive Committees issues free shotgun cartridges to registered clubs to reduce grey squirrel numbers. By the end of 1947 450 Grey Squirrel Shooting Clubs had killed 100,000 grey squirrels. Grey squirrels continued to spread.

1952 - Around 7,000 Grey Squirrel Shooting Clubs in existence but issue of free cartridges much abused. Forestry Commission argues for greater effort to control greys through national tail bounty.

1953 - First anti-grey squirrel propaganda on Radio 4’s The Archers. An experimental bonus system introduced to complement squirrel clubs; one shilling or two free cartridges paid per grey squirrel tail. The bounty is raised to two shillings in 1956. 1,520,304 grey squirrel bounties paid in five years with no effect on grey squirrel numbers. The system is abandoned in 1958.

1958 - Trapping shown to be more efficient than shooting grey squirrels.

1973 - The Squirrels order makes it legal to poison grey squirrels with warfarin in areas with no red squirrels.

2009 - 2012 - Grey squirrel numbers on mainland Britain continue to rise.

There are, like badgers, to many of them around and as they are unprotected (unlike badgers) I will do what I can to despatch as many of them that I can. I will do this humanely with a gun. Someone said magpies were to blame for the loss of song birds but the damage they do compared to squirrels is minimal.

http://www.arkive.org/grey-squirrel/sciurus-carolinensis/image-A21707.html

The only good grey squirrel is a dead one.
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Sorry to all tree rat lovers but :D:D to the last sentence
 
Moomin1 said:
So I take it you would whack your dog/cat/horse over the head with a shovel instead of taking it/getting the vet out to humanely inject then?!! Or if you picked up an injured feral cat, or badger etc etc is that what you would do?!
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now that's just silly, of course you wouldn't try and knock your horse/dog/cat over the head rather than take it to the vet, slight size difference between all of the above and a small rodent and i think most people could work out it would take a lot more than a shovel to do the job!
always amuses me how people think it's perfectly acceptable to poison vermin, causing them to die slowly, but throw their hands up and call people vile for knocking the very same vermin over the head for a swift dispatch:rolleyes:
Oh and i wouldn't pick up a feral injured badger! it wouldn't welcome the 'help' and would likely cause me serious injury!
 
Well... the squirrel was still there in the morning... it won't be needing a vet, though. RIP squirrel.

As for knocking it over the head with a shovel... I don't actually own a shovel. Or anything suitable for squirrel squashing, for that matter. Plus my hand-eye co-ordination isn't all that, so I'd probably just end up chopping its tail off, or something hideous.
 
Sorry to hear the squirrel died. You did your best for it through, so well done.

Moomin1 said:
So I take it you would whack your dog/cat/horse over the head with a shovel instead of taking it/getting the vet out to humanely inject then?!! Or if you picked up an injured feral cat, or badger etc etc is that what you would do?!

Oh, and I thought you advocated a swift knock on the head over taking to the vets to pts, so how come you are saying that the only options OP has are to either release it or keep it?!! Ask yourself whether you SERIOUSLY think keeping a wild animal caged up as a pet is humane?!!
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You got all that from my post? Cool. Wrong, but cool. Except its not cool.

Ok, options are 3 fold, keep caged (nope, I didn't say I thought it was humane and I don't), release (my prefered option unless it was suffering, and testicles to it if releasing it where it was trapped is against the law, let's see what the local policeman has to say to you if you think its worth reporting), or dispatch it humanely.

Just in case I didn't make myself crystal clear: a domesticated animal wouldn't be caused nearly as much stress from being handled by their owner, put in a cage, taken to the vet and handled by the vet, as a wild animal. To a wild animal all these things are completely alien to them, and are likely to cause very high stress levels. Total time from trapping an animal to a vet euthanaising it, 45 minutes MINIMUM around here (I know, I've done it with an injured cat), and that is assuming that a vet can see you immediately once you are at the surgery.

Compare all that to a total of 5 minutes (small animal trapped, find blunt object, steady animal if possible, deliver) and a swift blow to the head by someone who is reasonably confident that they would be able to dispatch the animal first time or if not put it right within seconds, and I consider that to be a far more humane method.

A larger animal such as a badger or a wild cat is an entirely different kettle of fish. I know from recent experience last Friday when the darling dog I was walking caught, fatally injured but didn't kill a grey squirrel, that I am able to dispatch an injured squirrel first time, using a hefty stick. Just because its not pretty doesn't mean its less humane.

But if you would like to think of me as barbaric and inhumane then please feel free. I can't stop you, nor will I lose any sleep wondering if you are correct ;)
 
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RIP squirrel! :(

My mums friend found a baby squirrel that was lonely, lost and had a bad leg. It lives in her garage, sits on her shoulder when she walks round the house and generally has a merry time!
 
Maybe we should all hit eachother over the head with a shovel seen as us humans have done a lot nore damage to the enviroment then a bunch if squirrels
 
DEEDEE83 said:
Maybe we should all hit eachother over the head with a shovel seen as us humans have done a lot nore damage to the enviroment then a bunch if squirrels
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you first then:p
i have whacked myself round the head numerous times with various implements ad never noticed any change in the environment apart from seeing stars where there were non before for a few seconds, i think your plan is flawed!
 
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