Shoot it or watch it??????

[KAE1]

Shoot it if you need to. Anyone feeding pheasants will know squirrels eat lots of feed, but the when the feeds run out they eat the feeders!! .
We dont rear pheasants anymore so I leave them be, the pigeon shooters knock into the dreys every now and then.

 

[twisted firestarter]

I remember a few years ago on the tv program 'A Cook on the Wild Side' Hugh Fernleigh Whitingstall prepared and cooked a memorable dish- Squirrel with hazelnut sauce

 

[Big Bad Stu]

If you're going to eat it, or it needs to be controlled for any reason shoot it.

If not watch it.

Stewey.

 

[spamel]

I remember a few years ago on the tv program 'A Cook on the Wild Side' Hugh Fernleigh Whitingstall prepared and cooked a memorable dish- Squirrel with hazelnut sauce

He got a lot of grief for that aswell, some intelligent animal rights activist stated that "Anybody that kills a squirrel should be forced to eat it!" Errrm, he did eat it, and he wasn't forced, he did it of his own choosing. So, intelligent animal rights activist, your point is?!!

 

[SimonM]

Both.... I used to shoot them but now take bags of nuts to the park and feed them with my kids!

Simon

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

Watch it and leave it for the day I am starving and need a meal...

 

[mob257774]

Watch it, shoot it, eat it. Know your enemy! I have never seen a wild red squirrel, and my chances of doing so diminish with each passing year. It is doubtful if any measure we take will completely eradicate the greys, and I cannot envisage the use of biological (disease) control of them, so I am quite happy to shoot and eat them as often as I can. Saying that, one comes into my mothers garden, and gives her great pleasure to watch.

 

[wicca]

Watch it and leave it for the day I am starving and need a meal...

Yep, I'll go with that Survival Bill. My first night 'home' after 3 in the woods. Set up fairly early Monday morning before the rain set in (it's a tent for me) a short time later boom boom boom ah! first drive of the day...4 drives before lunch, 3 after.. wouldn't mind a penny for every cartridge fired, 3.30pm...mmm! peace at last. About dusk, crack! crack! (obviously fast with the bolt this 'ol kiddie) sounded like a .222 mmm! fox probably... good night foxy hope it was clean and quick.
9 pm, what's that? 4x4 ... bouncy bouncy headlamps boom! boom! boom! boom! just a bit of lamping, I see... Just after dawn Tuesday morning, whack! high velocity..Now I'm looking for my flak jacket me, that's 6mm at least... No, it's ok you can stand up Wicca, it's from the deer seat over in the next forest block just across the ride.
Ah well, back to the noisey 'ol marina I suppose with all those halyards tap tapping in the wind.

 

[rapidboy]

I shoot them when i get the chance.

 

[Tony]

We had a couple of lovely little ones playing around outside, watched them for a while, appreciated them and then they destroyed the bird feeder, Shelly (wife) came in one day and said, "where's your gun?" I said "Ahh, I'll do it" So we went from

This...

To this....

So, really i'm a bit of both, if I see a number of them i'm inclined to shoot (but i'll eat them as well as we're in a rural area) or they are damaging property (they also tried to chew through the wheelie bin) trees etc I'll shoot. If there's just one or two and they're not doing any damage they've fun to watch.

 

[inthewids]

There are some in Princes street gardens in Edinburgh, they take food out of your hand so could probably catch them in a bag and club them (much to the amusement of tourists)

 

[pwb]

The estate where I work, in Angus, has a very healthy population of reds. Never seen a grey, we keep an eye out for them and would shoot on sight.
Or as my dad would say " administer a small dose of lead in the right ear".

Pete.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Nature is exactly that, what happens naturally. What it isn't is a name for trees and habitats and birds and bees and what we know to be.

When we introduced the grey squirrel, things changed and then found an equilibrium again, naturally. It's what nature does best! That this natural occurrance displeases people will only force them away from nature.

To presume we aren't a part of nature and therefore must act outside of nature to (and this is the really perverse part) 'help' nature automatically precludes our exclusion from nature. But that is a paradox, because we are here, a part of nature. Another 'over'-populated creature on this planet. Well, our overpopulation is inevitably our problem, so eventually that will find its natural path too, along with the squirrels. Playing big brother in the attempt to 'vote out' mr grey is ultimately missing the real benefit of being a part of nature. Our total emersion within it.

If you didn't manage to pass safely through those last two convoluted paragraphs, suffice it to say, be a predator if you will but why play god on behalf of nature?

I voted that I watch them, simply because I prefer to eat other food and because I've never needed to hunt (or protect my bird feeder ).

 

[swagman]

What i have found interesting in reading this thred is how alot of people want
the grey to be controled or even wiped out.

Then their are coments about how terible it is Englands wolves and bore have been hunted
so there are none left.

The grey was intreduced to England buy people and now people are shooting them
to try and rectifie a mistake .

When will we leave nature alone we always have to interfere.

 

[ecobandit]

I have reds in my garden and see them on a daily basis,greys have been encroaching for years but we just keep trapping and shooting,greys are just as cute to watch but if out with the gun then the only option is a lead implant!,its the same with magpies(handsome and also entertaining) horrid destructfull predators they,ll wait till the eggs hatch then raid the nests on mass,trap and shoot! them as well .however I do not agree with allowing ones dog to chase and kill even if it was a whippet or whatever,the dog should be under controlat all times!

 

[snoop]

Kill it, plain and simple, keep your PC retoric, it's vermin, kill it,


kill as many as you can & make a coat or a stew,

& for me all you pro lifers can go suck a strawberry or if your the sour faced sods chew a goosegog

 

[wicca]

Aw! come on Snoopy, say what you mean, don't mess about...

 

[Tony]

Umm, interesting first post snoop, might want to introduce yourself

 

[sapper1]

Who's that trip trapping on my bridge?
Myself ,If I'm just out walking I'll watch them for hours.
If I'm out foraging well, they do taste great and theres no stigma attatched to killing something to eat.
It's all down to what i'm doing at the time,if I'm out with a rifle then it's because I'm after food If I dont have the rifle then its because im just enjoying nature.

 

[fast but dim]

no contest, shoot them.
reds are getting scarcer and scarcer round me (lancs)

personally i use my dog, not as effective but she likes it.