Squirrel in house

Moral of the story, if you want to get up to no good, dress up as a squirrel.

MrsEggy Vermin are defined as species which are pests, spread disease or destroy crops.
Red squirrels don’t fit any of those criteria.

Surely if grey squirrels are rats with fluffy tails (they are a different genus) then red squirrels are red rats with fluffy tails?

Yes Elegran, I know they are vermin, and I definitely don`t want them in the house, but I would spare a rat. Many`s the time that I made my husband stop when a rat was in the road, I didn`t want them run over. There was a rat in our yard a few weeks ago, but it toddled off of it`s own accord. I`ve also rescued mice from Mia and released them on the bank around the front of the house.
Now shoot me down in flames everyone!

Grey squirrels do a lot of damage to woodland - particularly young trees. I will probably get death threats for this but I have eaten a grey squirrel shot by my grandson - it was very tasty.

It is ilegal to release a tiger, too - but they are also furry enjoyable animals, so let's have a few in every wood!
You jest elegran, but the Lynx Trust has been fighting to reintroduce the lynx into Kielder Forest and other sites in the UK, on the grounds that it used to live here hundreds of years ago before being driven out by human development.
They claim that the lynx would present no danger to humans and that they will curb the deer population.
So killing members of one species by exposing them to a new predator is ok, but culling them is not
I can understand wanting to conserve a species in an environment where they are already living, but reintroducing a long-gone species without knowledge of the consequences seems rather risky and a bit of a vanity project.
It seems that Northumberland County Council take a dim view too as the Trust has been refused permission.

It is ilegal to release a tiger, too - but they are also furry enjoyable animals, so let's have a few in every wood!

No. because pest control would have broken the law and lost his job if he had trapped it and let it go.

Furry enjoyable animals that carry a disease that kills red squirrels and another that humans can catch and become very ill.

Does anyone actually READ the thread before they post?

Interesting isn't it that although it has been stated that releasing a grey squirrel into the wild is illegal some people would still do it. I wonder if they would accept law-breaking in any other situation?

omg that poor squirrel!!!. shame on you ,why couldnt you have used a broom to shoo it out..cant believe you think its ok to kill an animal....glad i dont live near you..... i feed 4 squirrels along with the wild birds.they maybe rats with tails as you put it, but they furry enjoyable animals. shame on pest control could have trapped it and let it go. it might have been a mother squirrel with babies.. ......

A recent study by the University of Glasgow has found that grey squirrels carry the Borrelia bacteria, which can cause Lyme disease in humans when it is transferred via ticks. ... It is passed to humans via the sheep or deer tick (Ixodes ricinus). These ticks are commonly found on rodents and birds.29 Mar 2016

Horrid,, just open the window contaminated indeed for goodness sake it's a little squirrel!!!

He looks so sweet and innocent Fennel

It seems to depend partly on how cute they look, which shouldn't be the criteria.
This is the little fellow who did all the damage in our house.:
wtop.com/garden-plot/2017/08/mole-problem-vole-problem-heres-treat/
Looks very cute.
They're also worse than moles for ruining lawns.
Called rats taupiers in France.

Marilii I think you may be in the USA where the grey squirrel is an indigenous species - however, it is an introduced species in the UK (brought over from North America by those well-meaning Victorians!).

Anja
I would term it 'unnatural selection' as they're not native!

How about rats? Would those who would spare a squirrel spare a rat too?

I am with Bluebell here, i live where there are a lot of seagulls, and i often have a squirrel in my garden, illegal or not, who would know if you released it
I would have opened a window and shut the door
Hate fox hunting and Badger culling too

Natural selection.

GREY squirrels ARE vermin. They have seriously reduced our indigenous Red squirrels.
To release into the wild is illegal in the UK, I believe.
In houses they, like rats, can cause serious house fires through chewing through electrical wires.
Shooting is a legal, humane way of removing them.

If grey squirrels had no tails and looked less like a red squirrel and more lke a rat, i wonder whether there would bve such an outcry?

And I wonder how often it has to be said that there IS in fact a law forbidding the release of squirrels? which ARE animals in a country they normally didn't inhabit until they were brought in and released.

I can't imagine that law being brought into effect against someone chasing out a creature which had entered their house by mistake, but it does exist and a pest control officer officially removing one is obliged to kill it, not release it elsewhere.

Nope. There is one just for squirrels.

A squirrel that lives in your yard does not suddenly become unable to be released into the wild if he finds his way inside of your home. Such laws forbidding the release of animals into the wild pertain to such things as releasing pet boa constrictors or tarantulas into areas, states or countries which they normally don't inhabit. Releasing aquarium fish into a local pond where they can decimate the local fish also falls under that heading. But releasing a squirrel back into your yard - when it's home is up in one of your trees - is quite okay. Next time, please, just open a window and close the door behind you as you leave the room. Give the little guy some time and a chance to find his way back outside.

Jalima1108,

A scurry of squirrels icanhandthemback!

It's a pity that this one didn't scurry out the way it got in.

One dead squirrel seems to have become a mountain instead of a molehill.