Squirrel in house

"Would you like it if a neighbour shot your beloved pet dog in the head" How would you like it if your neighbour brought home a wild animal from his holidays abroad "because it is so cute" which turned out to have rabies and bit your beloved pet dog, passing on the lethal disease to it, so that you had to watch while your pet died horribly?

Red squirrels die horribly if they catch squirrelpox. Grey squirrels carry it and pass it on, but it doesn't affect them. Grey squirrels were brought here from North America by estate owners who wanted a cute exotic species.

Here are some photographs. You won't like them, they are not cute, they won't make you go "Ahhhh!", but they are the reality of importing alien animals with alien diseases.
Red squirrels with squirrel pox.

PamelaJ1 I just watched from a distance.
I've had to run the gauntlet of cane toads on a stormy night! They were everywhere.

why would they be here.
because they were introduced to this country in the 1800s by the Victorians and escaped in the 1870s - now there are about 2.5 million in the UK.

Do you not think that the stoat should be eliminated in NZ? Another introduced species (by the Victorians in 1884) and there are scarcely any native kakapo left there now because the stoats eat their eggs. I think there are 62 kakapo left altogether.

That cannot be right.

Jalima, I was at the back praying my number didn’t come up?

I don't think it is Gransnetters who have labelled the grey squirrel vermin - they are in fact classified as a pest.
As others have said further up the thread:
It’s an offence to keep or release some wild animals, eg grey squirrels - you must kill them humanely if you catch them alive.
From the Government website www.gov.uk/pest-control-on-your-property

I do enjoy seeing the grey squirrels in our garden, but we have no red squirrels within hundreds of miles. If there were, I would not be worried about the greys being eliminated in order to preserve our native species. The greys carry squirrel pox, are not affected by it but can transmit it to red squirrels which then die quite quickly.

I think its figusting to label any animsl as vermin.
They are just animals or birds.
They have a right to live on this planet ss much as anyone if us.
Or why would they be here.
Would you like it if a neighbour shot your beloved pet dog in the head , just because he wondered in to next doors garden .
Im a firm believer in live and let live .

If the Inuit people hadn't eaten whale, seal and walrus they would have died out through lack of Vitamin D.

PamelaJ1 yes, disgusting.
They're poisonous - we watched someone organising a cane toad race and the children were picking them up. Yuck!

If Ekimo's didn't wear the fur/skins of their animals they'd be wiped out with the fierce temperatures they have to endure.

I've seen plenty of our elderly wearing fur coats in the winter which are very likely 100+ years old. ( coats ) Why are people up in arms if it's going to save that person's life during cold weather ? How many thousands died last year because of hypothermia ?

Have we been brainwashed to such a degree that people find it so obscene ?

New coats of today are about fashion only and not warmth, they're disgusting and mostly made in countries where there are child labourers------which is what I would protest about ! Now that IS cruelty.

Agree with others that opening a window would have been the thing to do. Seems very extreme to have to kill the squirrel .We used to have squirrels in the garden of our family home. Fascinating to watch. Now all I see from where I live is magpies and pigeons. Would love to see a squirrel again .

My question : If this species of animal is a disease-ridden virtual pest, why the outcry when wearing its fur ?

Lots of recipes for squirrel available if you google it.
Jalima- we were supposed to kiss the cane toads in Port Douglas?

I would shoot cane toads if given a chance.

Apparently that has been thought of Nelliemoser but there is a bit of a problem with some of the diseases grey squirrels carry.

Woolleycat and others. How do you feel about our native Red squirrels do you not think they deserve to be protected. This is so important

If we don't more "closely control" that is get rid of our grey squirrels a non native British animal with few predators we will have no more of our native red squirrels'. We will make them extinct . Dead and gone for ever. They are not just pretty little animals. How do they taste? That might be a solution and taste better than Chicken.

Killing in self defense is one thing, killing because a cat is digging up your "award winning" garden or a squirrel is "contaminating" your home is another. It should be the very last resort ... and for the right reasons.

Hear, hear HellsBells.

Lumarei??
You’ve just written what I was thinking.

What strange responses. I hope all animal lovers here are vegetarians if not vegans and that they don’t own a cat or a dog. I find people’s judgemental debates about which animal killing is ok and which is not, hypocritical The reaction of the majority here condemning the OP shows how removed we are from nature (apart from spiders, mosquitos or other beetles which can be killed of course) A farmer wouldn’t have given this issue a second thought. Nature is no stranger to killing and the human species are not the only killing animals. Killing animals is part of the reason we are all sitting here commenting n this topic however unpleasant this may sound in our warm clean 21st century houses.

How wicked

people will always want to kill I'm afraid

Check your attic. The little devils can get in under the eaves.

I should not have read this as I got into bed...Will go to sleep feeling sad...

As Carrie said in Sex and the City, they are rats, just with cuter outfits. If wildlife invade my space, sorry, but this is like an episode of Dynasties. I will protect my territory.

My parents-in-law had squirrels in the loft which chewed through wiring. There was a fire which destroyed not only part of their house but also a neighbouring house.

www.rsne.org.uk/squirrels-and-law