Squirrels are cute! Don't kill them!

[Funderb]

I have shot and eaten the great tree rat.
Taste like meat, is whitish meat.
Hell, I was hungry and out of stir fry.

 

[buck460XVR]

rabbits are cute too, till they start knawin' on my blueberry bushes......then they are dead.

 

[MCgunner]

Go out to the dump shoot a big rat and skin it, then go into the woods and shoot a squirrel, skin it.

Lay them both side by side, see any difference? A little rat meat never hurt anybody!

Rats have a huge thymus gland. I could probably tell the difference.

I've had some good camp meals of fried tree rat and boiled dandelion greens. Beats the hell out of Dinty Moore beef stew, or at least breaks the monotony.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Deer are a LOT cuter than squirrels, and I kill them too. My dogs are the cutest things on earth - one of them anyway, and I shoot feral dogs, too. Being cute ain't enough to save you if you're a pest.

With bush tails, without bushy tails.... Rats - the other other white meat.

 

[lazyeye]

In college my buddies and I would go out to the farm land and shoot from a truck as we moved around the pasture.
The farmers loved us because we kept the pest population down and in turn their herds didn't break limbs in squirrel holes, and we had a great time shooting as fast as we could at the limitless supply of squirrels.

My parents always thought that we were being rednecks and cruel up until squirrels started eating their chicken's eggs. Then my dad asked for my .22

 

[dalepres]

Killing them is required. I don't think PITA would like it at all if you cooked them alive.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I once had a lady ask me, "WHO would want to kill a deer?"

I said, "You HAVE to kill them. Otherwise, they keep jumping out of the frying pan."

 

[TooTaxed]

A few years ago I moved into a house with a lovely pecan tree behind the house (Atlanta). I was really looking forward to the pecans...but the squirrels got there first. They couldn't wait until the pecans were ripe...they would grab a green pecan, take a bite, throw it down and grab another.

So, I gave up on my dreams of pecan pie...but squirrels are cute, so I could live with that.

Then they declared war! Started chattering when we came out the back door, and peed from above, pissy mist falling on us! I decided that if I couldn't have pecan pie, I'd have squirrel stew! Waited until the neighbors were away, and offed one.

Downer! The darn thing was inedible, flavored by those green pecans! I hung the skin, with head and tail attached, from the tree...they just avoided that limb.

My father came up with the solution...BB gun! We stung 'em pretty well, and most of them stayed away. And we had a lot of sport peppering them on the run.

We wound up with three hard cases...an old male who would rush for cover to a crotch high in the tree; a young male who would run down the trunk and across the yard into the neighbor's yard, and a young female who would run along a certain low limb, jump to the garage roof, and escape from there. The young male gave us a lot of sport hitting him on the run, but still returned for more.

I cut off the limb the female used. The next time I came out of the house, she sprang for the missing limb...pancaked on the garage roof and rolled over the edge to splat on the ground! I was laughing so hard she got away before I could shoot.

Anyway, we did get a few pecans, and a lot of sport... And I haven't liked squirrels since.

 

[TooTaxed]

DaggerDog, while in Vietnam we Special Forces grunts lived with the Vietnamese and ate with them. I developed a real fondness for roast paddy rat...well fed, healthy little animals. But stay away from the city rats! They were a mess of mange, and their diet was...well...not appealing!

 

[koja48]

And they became even less cute when the arborist informed me I have significant squirrel damage to large limbs in my gorgeous old maples last week (they gnaw thru the bark & lick the sap . . . damaged areas that they keep open become diseased & rotten over time.). Can't legally shoot them in WA State, so I'll just hope my Lab keeps them at bay and any that are chewing on my trees fall victim to tragic accidents. 'Course now, if one of them acts rabid or charges . . .

 

[TooTaxed]

Koja48, try stinging them with BB guns..i.e., the trusty old Red Rider. Won't kill them, but they sure don't like being stung. It's best to get your neighbors' approval so you won't be informed on...

 

[koja48]

Thanks . . . I'll use an airsoft gun & the neighbor has the same problem, but isn't a shootist so I don't anticipate any issues on that front. Maggie nailed one this morning when it fell off the fence trying to beat a hasty retreat . . . she made a nice retrieve, too! A couple years ago, someone called LE because I was shooting an airgun (re-zeroing after I swapped scopes). Since I was using a backstopped pellet trap in accordance with the local regs ~ " . . . in a safe manner not posing potential for injury to people or harm to property . . . ," the responding officer spent some time shooting the thing after he arrived. I was severely chastised for having a ". . . dang that's a nice, accurate" air rifle.

 

[Griz44]

With bush tails, without bushy tails.... Rats - the other other white meat.

2 billion screaming Asians can't be wrong! I have eaten both, but prefer the ones with the bushy tails. If you are hungry enough, meat is meat no matter where it comes from. Just ask George Donner... (1846, sorry, think he is dead now)

 

[texfed]

If I'm going to eat it or it's causing me problems on my property It's time to get the lead out!
That steak looked cute before it was processed too! But I love steak!

 

[Guillermo]

Deer are lovely creatures and have the added benefit of being delicious.

As to the "tree rats" I find them to be a lot of fun to take with a .22 pistol. Besides, they are tasty.

Fun to hunt, good to eat...sounds like a nice combination to me.

 

[paintballdude902]

my ex girlfriend gave me alot of crap for it....then one day we were walking in the park and one started throwing pecans at us i said "see those dang things dont eat nuts, they use them for ammo"

 

[CSA 357]

YOU CAN EAT THE RATS...............ILL EAT THE SQUIRRELS , THEY LIVE IN TREES NOT IN SEWERS, THEY DONT EAT TRASH, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME! BUT THEY ARE BUILT ALIKE

 

[308win]

I must be defective because to me - Jessica Simpson is cute; squirrel is food and sport. Course, I guess Jessi . . . oh, never mind.

 

[conw]

Don't take this the wrong way, because it is cool that you gave such a long explanation to your wife, but I don't think it really needs any justification, any more than any other animal you kill.

Now that you mention it, when I mention squirrel hunting most people seem to react like I said "hunting neighborhood cats" or "hunting puppies."

I really hate when people anthropromorphise animals...

 

[JShirley]

When I was maybe three (I remember, but don't remember my mom freaking out about it, so I think I must have been too young to explain), I was sitting on the ground in the back yard. My legs were in front of me, as young children's legs sometimes are.

And a squirrel came up and bit my big toe.

I have waged relentless war on them since.

 

[conw]

And a squirrel came up and bit my big toe.

That same day, there was a leak at the local nuclear power plant that was covered up by the government. They rounded up all the survivors...except for one. And then...CAPTAIN SQUIRRELY WAS BORN!

Okay, just kidding...I'll be going to bed now.

 

[stevelyn]

Growing up in rural WV, I killed and ate a lot of tree rat, but up here in AK the red squills are pests and taste like spruce trees. I turn them inside out with the .17 and also set out a few 1 1/2 long spring Oneidas to catch them when they go scurrying across the top of the fence.

 

[cliffy]

Squirrels are . . .

Damn, such mixed feelings! I wouldn't eat the little rodents, but I admire their perpensity to survival during long Michigan winters. They are rats, true, but they bury acorns that sprout in the spring and usually where I don't need more Oaks! I have over thirty Black Oak, 100 foot monsters in my back yard already. One massive Oak presses against my house! I love it, but it creaks my home in heavy winds, while squirrels drop half-eaten acorns on my roof from August till STOP! My deck is constantly covered in chewed acorns throughout the fall. Still, they don't wake me as much as the Raccoons screeching in my back yard near the too close creek in the early a.m. Fritz, my really fat Woodchuck, causes me the least sleeping problems. The Chipmunks do occasionally wake me up with their CONSTANT chatter! Crows drive me crazy with their continual bickering over the owls in my back yard. I rarely get to sleep till noon. If squirrels are your biggest problem, shoot them! Because deer eating my low-hung trees are welcome to them. My back yard shall always belong to the mink, muskrat, deer, raccoon, opposum, rabbits, snapping turtles, box turtles, water snakes, spawning salmon, chipmunks, herons, and whatever that likes my back yard. My front lawn is another story. I plan to plant more grass seed there. I do like the grubs for fishing bait, however. cliffy, consumed by nature.

 

[Mike U.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah...tree rats are all cute and fuzzy and they're playfulness is fun to watch...it's all fun'n'games till they chew thru your roof causing leak after leak and playing tag and chase in your attic at all hours of the freakin' night! Chewing thru the electrical wiring up there leaving you wondering if you'll wake up one night with a burning ceiling collapsing all around you and dying a horrible death in your own bed. It's all fun and games till your property gets destroyed and you find yourself living in fear of a cute and fuzzy rodent.
DEATH TO ALL THE LI'L FUZZY TAILED VERMIN!! KILL'EM ALL!







Okay...now that I've got that offa my chest I think I'll go pour another cup of coffee and eat a coupla more Percocets.

 

[Dookie]

And they became even less cute when the arborist informed me I have significant squirrel damage to large limbs in my gorgeous old maples last week (they gnaw thru the bark & lick the sap . . . damaged areas that they keep open become diseased & rotten over time.). Can't legally shoot them in WA State, so I'll just hope my Lab keeps them at bay and any that are chewing on my trees fall victim to tragic accidents. 'Course now, if one of them acts rabid or charges . . .

The only tree squirrels we can't shoot are the Douglas, northern flying and western gray squirrels, all the rest are non game species and are able to be hunted. But if it involves depredation then you can dispatch them.

Western Gray Squirrel