Um, yeah, words escape me regarding the folly of this. What a waste of taxpayer dollars prosecuting someone for "squirrel cruelty". It probably wasn't particularly cruel, as he shot them and it was probably fast.

The real moral -- be very discrete in dealing with issues of this sort. You never know who is watching in today's society.

Here's some 80's musical paranoia you can dance to. Michael and Jermaine Jackson do background vocals.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rockwell, 'Somebody's Watching Me'

I live in NJ, and this story has been all over the news. It's a bit gruesome how he hung them from his fence, but I don't blame him for shooting them. Those damn things are everywhere here, and are quite the nuisance. They destroyed every bird feeder I have ever tried to hang up in my back yard. Though, it's our overpopulation that is reall the root cause, they simply have nowhere to go, just like the deer here. We continue to develop the land they live on, and then blame them for eating the stuff growing in our back yard.

Idiots all the way around. Why he hung them up is beyond me. No corpses no case. Of course there's always a strong possibility a neighbor will consider this cruelty.

Where I live squirrels are a game animal so the state doesn't want you shooting them out of season and without getting their cut. Fees are another word for taxes but aren't termed as such so the politicians love them.

Moral - don't call attention to yourself with flagrant displays.

I agree...stupid on each side. If you are doing it, keep it on the "down low".. If anything, eat them... no evidence then.

They really aren't being displaced by human intrusion, since they are just as home in your attic as they are in a tree cavity, and just as prolific. The forests of America are now larger than they were in 1900 since modern agriculture has centralised operations. If you were the only human within ten square miles, would they still be a pest. Yes. When the territories were being settled you had to pay a bounty of squirrel scalps as well as money for tax. They are so at home around humans, they're practically domesticated.

Animal cruelty? If this man is guilty, then we had better shut down every slaughterhouse in the country. In our state squirrel are considered game, and fried squirrel and gravy is a real treat if you have never tried it. I can see them be protected under game laws, but shooting a squirrel called cruelty? Get real. His display offended somebody's sensibilities. You are not allowed to offend anyone anymore, and the next thing you know mouse traps will be illegal.

Squirrels are like other species of animal. They are probably doing better with humans around. Food year round, not as many things trying to eat them. once they enter my garden it's turns into a nuisance. Peels my corn like a bannana and eats it. The guy should of buried it or compost it.

Calliope,

Maybe the squirrels arenot being displaced, but the deer and bears definetly are. And that may be true about the forest overall, but is certainly not the case in NJ. If there is a patch of trees, you can be certain a developer will come along and cut it down, replace it with cookie cutter homes, and then name all the streets in the development after either the trees they just cut down, the wildlife that used to live those amongst those trees, or after native American tribes that once inhabited the area lol...

Oh I understand that. But we were talking squirrels, and grey squirrels in particular, and they are not displace but attracted by human habitation and activities. They are overtaking and predominating other species, particularly outside the U.S. where somebody thought it was a good idea to introduce them. There are good laws and there are silly laws. I can understand them being protected as a game species. I could understand intervention if somebody was torturing them for the fun of it. I can understand if shooting a firearm in a populated area was the issue. I cannot understand how dispatching a destructive rodent qualifies as cruelty, even though I don't participate in killing them. I enjoy them and we even feed them to watch their antics. But I don't pretend to think I should dictate my ethics on other people who don't see it that way when it comes to a rodent.

I think the law against (or hope I should say) shooting squirrels (or anything in a suburb) are really to protect the people in the community. You can see there is a house right behind his fence. You don't want people shooting guns towards your shared fence, a stray bullet could hit your property or you!

Animal cruelty would be a strange charge. What about mouse traps and the like? Are they okay with that?

A couple of years ago a man who wrote a column for the NY Times was asked by a reader what she should do about a neighbor of her elderly mother who looked out for her mom but drowned squirrels that "trespassed" into his orchard. The columnist urged the reader to turn the man in for animal cruelty no matter how nice he treated her mother.

I wrote him explaining that drowning was a reasonably humane way of dispatching this vermin as they drown in just a few seconds and that the man was protecting his food. He answered me with some silliness about the squirrel having a different point of view and never responded when I compared the squirrels to his city rats.

Modern existence has most people living very far away from nature so they have no clue about the real meaning of survival and the competition that's involved.

When you choose to care for an orchard you enter the real world- our true homeland- but a foreign country to most of us.

Thanks for posting Milehigh.

I was struck by the phoniness of it all. The mayor said he wants to send a message "not to take matters into one's own hands" that he should have called animal control officers.

That makes for good sound bites (after all who hasn't heard from youth not to take the law in our own hands). But do they really expect animal control officers to set and monitor traps for nuisance squirrel complaints? I expect the animal control experts would only recommend exclusion as a remedy. Exclusion can be expensive measures if there is a heavy population of squirrels with lots of large overhead trees. Squirrels can chew through wood siding.

The other day I was speaking with someone who had experienced squirrels in his attic. His neighbor was currently dealing with the same problem. The damage (urine, chewed wires and insulation) was extensive. His kids have started shooting the squirrels.

I can understand if they city had an ordinance against BB guns, as some cities do to prevent vandalism. If that were the case, they should have cited the squirrel hunter with discharging a BB gun.

Shoot-shovel-shutup

Trap, dispatch, clean, season, flour, fry, tell everyone it's chicken.

LOL.....that's about the gist of it. I have had crop damage in a greenhouse caused by chipmunks. They're cute little rodents too. The value of the crops they ruined would hit four figures at the retail level. One year they managed to unearth and then bury thousands of newly sown tomato seeds into pots of geraniums. I was able to salvage the geraniums, but had to purchase more seeds for the vegetable crop and then weed the emerging tomato plants out of all the geraniums pots. Don't even go there with damage to corn seedlings. Hundreds of oak and buckeye seedlings chewed off at soil level when they went for the still clinging nut, consumed it and left the plant severed in the pots seperated from its root system. Or the mice who get into the chicken shed to chew holes in the feed containers and spread their germs and feces around. No, I did not trap or poison or shoot them. I installed a barn cat into the operation. Then I get critised for not keeping kitty in the house and letting it 'roam free'. LOL

Hah, olpea, I caught the same silly statement by the mayor. Can you imagine calling animal control over squirrels?!? They'd think it was a prank call. Here in San Diego county, and I believe the entire state of California, ground squirrels (our nemesis here) are considered "pests". If you trap them, you MUST dispatch with them. In fact, if you are caught trapping and releasing, you will be fined. And the fine is no small chump change. They don't want you to create a pest issue for someone else. Bamboo has it right - the three "S's". For me, it's the 3 "P's" - Poison, Plant (I bury the dead squirrels), and Party (as I then get to actually eat my fruit).

Patty S.

Strange thing about my yard, is that I never see squirrels until the peaches are almost ripe. Then they strip the tree.

Here in Ohio they recently changed the laws regarding squirrels. Squirrels are now treated like nuisance raccoons: you can trap them and then destroy them humanely. They can be released on someone else's property only with permission. Seems silly, though, that you have to trap, then shoot. Why not just shoot?

I can see the sense in keeping suburban backyards from turning into free fire zones. How many people can pot a squirrel or rabbit with every shot? That missed shot is going to go somewhere and hit something else.

Yeah, I've got no sympathy at all for squirrels. Red squirrels did several hundred dollars damage to the wiring on a Chevy truck I used to own in the course of a weekend. I parked on Friday after work in my driveway, on Sunday the darn thing wouldn't do anything when I turned the key. I popped the hood to find a mess of fiberglass insulation torn from the underside of the hood (for whatever reason, Chevy insulated the hoods on the late 1980's model S10's) and chewed wires, all mixed with leaves from the nearby maple tree. It had made a cozy little sleeping nest in there.

Several years later, squirrels stuffed the ventilation system in my Chevy Tracker with walnuts -- it wasn't covered under my warranty since it wasn't GM's fault, and the quote to correct it was about $1000.

"poison, plant, & party"

That made me laugh Patty :-)

I wish more people would shoot them. Where I live in the boonies, so called well meaning animal lovers are dumping them in my area making them a pest I have to deal with. I especially despise the raccoons people keep dumping on my property.

I used to trap the squirrels with 2 hava-hart traps and take them for a long ride (5 miles) to re-locate.

Last year I was spoiled as my neighbor was unemployed and handy with the air rifle (he is a fire arms instrutor).

Now he has a job so back to trapping.

Poison? About 10 years ago when liquid Diazinon was available I jokingly suggested to a friend to lace peanut
butter with Diazinon and spread it on the pine cones in his yard. Just a joke, but they did it! They went on a
2 day vacation afterwards and came home to find dead squirrels all over the yard!

I don't advocate poison but just telling the true story as
you all know how frustrating it is to find the squirrels
taking your fruit.

I will go back to trapping.

"If you build it, they will come" - From that crappy Kevin Cosner movie....

Its true when It comes to our gardens. You plant a cherry, birds strip it. You plant a block of roses, aphids come. IT just so happens that squirrels eat most of the same stuff we do. They are one of the most successful and impotiant species in a forest. They spread seeds around to ensure a proper distance for trees to help genetic diversity.

If something is actually a problem, rather then just "walking in your yard", sure, you may have to do something. Unfortunately, this isnt the middle ages, and displaying your kill in your front yard isnt the best idea.

Now, a funny thing. IF this were stray cats or dogs, there would be a larger uproar, rather then just "a squirrel"...

Just sayin..............

Drowning is cruel.

Displaying them was just sick.

Drowning is cruel.

Displaying them was just sick.

A good number of years ago, where my family was from, it was commonplace to shoot woodchucks and hang them on the roadside signs, guard rails, etc.

I can see this opening a HUGE can of worms. Squirrels damaged my chevy truck. I was not allowed to stop them, as I did not want to take the law into my own hands. Pay up mayor...

Ernie, I beg to differ. Drowning is quick. Shooting you may wound the animal. I think drowning a coon is cruel because the animal suffers for quite a while before dying but a squirrel is so high metabolism it perishes in a few seconds. A high speed pellet to the brain brings a very quick and merciful death to a trapped coon but trapped squirrels are hard to kill with a single pellet.

If you've never dealt with the dispatching of vermin you probably can't say what is the most merciful technique. What nature has in store for most of us (including squirrels) is much crueler that dunking a squirrel in water.

Hmmm, I still have a bottle of Diazinon liquid concentrate. Just sayin'.

D-Con rat pellets mixed 50-50 with peanut butter. Neighbor put in new lawn and tree rats kept digging in it. So he made them dinner every other night for a few weeks. They went extinct for a few years in our area. He dares them to return.

Hard man. Nice lawn.

I got 3 squirrels right away with my Kania and then all of a sudden they were all gone. I had counted at least 10 juveniles at one time while I sat on my porch one day. I couldn't figure out where they went; for one whole day I saw no squirrels. It turns out that my neighbor, upon hearing my thoughts on squirrels, decided it was safe for him to do them in. He said in two days he trapped and shot 11 of them! Guess who will be getting some peaches from me this year!

He deserves a defense fund with the "animal cruelty" charge. However hunting out of season without a license or using a possibly illegal weapon (when I lived in NJ you needed a license to own a BB gun) could be indefensible charges.

His main crime when disobeying improper laws was to not follow all three of the S's. Shoot, Shovel, Shut-up.

I found my city has squirrels as protected species. Odd since they keep annexing rural lands where hunting is otherwise legal. I've been tempted to call them to take care of their squirrels or pay for the damage.

melikeeatplants, it's a BB gun. Although if I could use my 223 there would be no issue with stray bullets. I have a squirrel load where nothing solid exits and it is extremely accurate. It would just be a bit loud for neighborhood shooting.

Why would they hang the carcasses on fences and guard rails?

spartan-appleet. al.,
what did you use to bait the squirrels? i don't want to use corn since that is what they mostly destroy in my garden.

Ernie, It's for all the varmint's relatives to see what happens to trespassers and looters. I was thinking of doing it with racoons, but ...
But the real intention, is sensationalism. People sometimes do things to see how others react. They get a kick out of seeing people glance with puzzled looks and having an approach-me-not display. Imagine all the impressions they can make, especially upon the little ones when they say to teach other, "I hope our ball doesn't end up in his yard."
hahaha time for some coffee

I've heard 100 times that the best way to keep crows out of your garden/field is to hang a dead crow up. A neighbor, where he plants his sweet corn, hangs up triangles of black plastic to imitate dead crows. I even knew someone to kill an old hen, spray paint it black, and hang it up in his garden.
If someone suggested it could work with squirrels, why not try it (apart from mayors, police, etc. that live in consumerist bubbles)?

Floyd, I have not found squirrels to care about their dead brethren, I would shoot one and the squirrel right next to it would keep on feeding. But right now I have three dead squirrels I shot with my pellet gun that I have not gotten around to picking up yet, and their now-stinking bodies seem to be keeping the herd of their brothers and sisters away from whats left of my peaches. So, I don't think dummy squirrels would work, but bottled dead-squirrel-stink might. I am going to keep these dead guys there for now.

Scott

sonny:

I posted an answer yesterday to your qeustion but I do not see it so here it is again.

I bait my trap with unsalted peanuts in the shell. It works good on squirrel. The only issue is sometimes chipmunks raid the bait without setting off my trap. I suppose they are too light to set off the trip pan on my trap. I guess salted peanuts would work too, but I like to eat unsalted ones better. Whatever I do not use for bait, I then get to eat once my peach season is over.