Brother in law shooting grey squirrels

[NettleMania]

Is this an okay thing to do? AIBU to have a go if it's in his own garden?

I'm a bit conflicted as I have a live and let live attitude towards animals, but BIL swears it's not illegal to shoot them, that they're vermin and have chased off all our native red squirrels and that they're eating all the food he puts out for the birds.

He has tried other ways to get rid of them, but they are determined. My DS just shrugs and carries on with her knitting!

@Pigeoninthehouse

I think I have met about two people in my life that would be ok with killing a squirrel and they hunt animals too. Seems to be a disproportinate number of posters that are ok with killing animals for a site aimed at women. I am aware that women are fully capable of 'dispatching' squirrels and other 'vermin' personally I am yet to meet one in my lifetime, but I know they exist, just strange that mumsnet seems to be a haven for them.

Maybe you have and just don’t know it? I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation IRL with any friends discussing if we’d be ok with killing squirrels or not.

@Pigeoninthehouse

I think I have met about two people in my life that would be ok with killing a squirrel and they hunt animals too. Seems to be a disproportinate number of posters that are ok with killing animals for a site aimed at women. I am aware that women are fully capable of 'dispatching' squirrels and other 'vermin' personally I am yet to meet one in my lifetime, but I know they exist, just strange that mumsnet seems to be a haven for them.

I don't know if you've ever met me, it seems unlikely. But I can count one 1 hand the number of current friends and acquaintances that would know I would be ok with killing squirrels. Because living in a city, I cannot imagine a scenario in which I'd actually discuss that irl! I suspect that you know more people than you think. Unless wildlife husbandry is a topic you frequently discuss?

we are a nation of secret squirrel killers, waiting in the sidelines to discuss are shameful past time

Shameful? Why would it be shameful?

@PlanDeRaccordement

we are a nation of secret squirrel killers, waiting in the sidelines to discuss are shameful past time

Shameful? Why would it be shameful?

Christ the fact you have to even ask that is shameful

@PlanDeRaccordement

we are a nation of secret squirrel killers, waiting in the sidelines to discuss are shameful past time

Shameful? Why would it be shameful?

Well if it's not shameful, why has it not come up in conversation. Especially amongst family and long standing friends, just general topic of conversation, after all its not shameful, it all perfectly normal ?

Maybe you have and just don’t know it? I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation IRL with any friends discussing if we’d be ok with killing squirrels or not.
You also seem to hold quite strong views on the topic, strange that your stance on conservation regarding grey squirrels, hasn't been expressed. If I held strong views like that, I would on occasion express them, unless of course I felt embarassed about them.

Well if it's not shameful, why has it not come up in conversation. Especially amongst family and long standing friends, just general topic of conversation, after all its not shameful, it all perfectly normal ?

Well it’s not something you’d discuss while eating is it? It’s like child projectile vomit discussions, not shameful but not really something that comes up.

Yes it was supposed to quote you but didn’t.

Not saying I wouldn’t tell people because it’s shameful but I’m not going to discuss hunting with someone who isn’t interested in that anymore than I’d talk cars with someone who knows nothing about cars.

I’ve friends who have culled and eaten squirrels, I have friend who wouldn’t eat anything they saw alive even catching a fish.

I’ve butchered whole pigs and raw fed my pets not many people in real know that because they think raw feeding is bad and I cnba with their scaremongering views given to them via the pet food industry so I avoid that topic.

@Pigeoninthehouse

Maybe you have and just don’t know it? I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation IRL with any friends discussing if we’d be ok with killing squirrels or not. You also seem to hold quite strong views on the topic, strange that your stance on conservation regarding grey squirrels, hasn't been expressed. If I held strong views like that, I would on occasion express them, unless of course I felt embarassed about them.

And you don’t have a strong view? Your view is stronger than mine as you think no one should ever kill a squirrel for any reason. Mine is more moderate and is of the view that a person can kill a squirrel if there is a valid reason such as protecting a vulnerable native species.

@Polmuggle

Do people who thing this is disgusting also think trapping and poisoning rats/mice is disgusting?

I do. If you're killing to eat / use the animal that's one thing but killing for convenience or to make life your life a bit easier seems so cold to me.

There are lots of valid reasons to cull wildlife, to protect other wildlife even. And there's no hard and fast rule about where to draw the line.
So for example, culling crows, badgers and foxes to protect ground nesting birds, culling deer to protect new woodland, culling mink to protect water voles, culling hedgehogs and rats to protect seabirds culling beavers to protect farmland and infrastructure. It's all about trying to strike a reasonable balance, and it's an ongoing assessment.
But you always have to have a strategy and boundaries and a clear outcome.

@JunoMcDuff

HeartvsBrain I cull grey squirrels and foxes. I eradicate as far as possible mice and rats. I kill chickens, pigs, ducks and lambs to eat.

It's all killing but with different purposes which is understood by using the correct terminology. Language matters.

You don't sound very kind.
(Mnhq is that more acceptable than my last comment that was deleted?)

I wouldn't like to be around, when someone shoots a squirrel, in case they don't kill it outright, and only badly injures it, and it has to suffer until it dies somewhere.

I have just seen a grey squirrel, it was adeptly running quite fast, along a very long cable , high above the road here., very cute to watch, it could have got a job in a circus high wire postion.!!

@Ihaventgottimeforthis
Exactly. Anyone who has read about conservation of wildernesses would understand that the environmental scientists and workers do have to manage the populations of wildlife to keep the ecosystem balanced. They even cull deer to protect tree saplings because too many deer in a forest can literally kill every baby tree so the forest is in danger of dying completely unless the deer herds are culled to a sustainable level.

@Pigeoninthehouse

Maybe you have and just don’t know it? I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation IRL with any friends discussing if we’d be ok with killing squirrels or not. You also seem to hold quite strong views on the topic, strange that your stance on conservation regarding grey squirrels, hasn't been expressed. If I held strong views like that, I would on occasion express them, unless of course I felt embarassed about them.

If the topic of grey squirrels came up, I'm not in the least bit embarrassed about thinking they are vermin. Nor am I embarrassed nor ashamed about coming from a place where red squirrels are increasingly in number and grey squirrels are culled to support them. But living in a city, it's not a topic that comes up unsurprisingly.

It's a bit like the fact we're all married, do the topic of when we lost our virginity never comes up. There's nothing shameful about it, it's just not something we've ever discussed!

I think it's weirder if you just walk in to rooms and declare things you feel strongly about!

TabithaTumbler

I want to know what you called me in your original post!

I'm really kind. I'm just not vegan. You can be kind and not be vegan.

I do. If you're killing to eat / use the animal that's one thing but killing for convenience or to make life your life a bit easier seems so cold to me.
@NotImpossible - so what do you do if you get mice in your house? If you trap them alive and release them, they will just die outside, from cold, hunger or predators. So I assume you just let them breed and overrun your house?

@RustyBear

I do. If you're killing to eat / use the animal that's one thing but killing for convenience or to make life your life a bit easier seems so cold to me. *@NotImpossible* - so what do you do if you get mice in your house? If you trap them alive and release them, they will just die outside, from cold, hunger or predators. So I assume you just let them breed and overrun your house?

Never had mice in my house unless due to the cat and in those cases I have released them in my garden where they have access to my shed and garage. I also have my suspicions there is a rat or 2 under my decking. I have grey squirrels, foxes and badgers and none of them cause me any issues whatsoever.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam
Never had mice in my house unless due to the cat...

So it’s shameful if you kill mice, but not shameful to have a mice killing machine for a pet? The cat is doing the “dirty work” for you.

Reminds me of the Quakers in the American colonies. Being pacifists, they would neither attack nor defend themselves against the Native American tribes. So they paid to ship over Welsh colonists and gave them land in a buffer zone between them and the tribes. Specifically so that the Welsh colonists could do the “dirty work” of genocide for them.

You’re a mouse killer by proxy.

[quote PlanDeRaccordement]@AllThingsServeTheBeam
Never had mice in my house unless due to the cat...

So it’s shameful if you kill mice, but not shameful to have a mice killing machine for a pet? The cat is doing the “dirty work” for you.

Reminds me of the Quakers in the American colonies. Being pacifists, they would neither attack nor defend themselves against the Native American tribes. So they paid to ship over Welsh colonists and gave them land in a buffer zone between them and the tribes. Specifically so that the Welsh colonists could do the “dirty work” of genocide for them.

You’re a mouse killer by proxy.[/quote]
My cats were all rescues. Do I like that they kill things? No. Do I have a choice? Also no. Out of 5 cats (all rescues) only 1 has ever hunted. And of the mice he has caught.. probably 4 in 8 years, I have managed to release 3 back into my shed where the cat can't get.

It's not illegal, but ethically you should eat anything you shoot, the pelts can be used to make clothing/throws too. There was someone on tv talking about it the other day, very good in curry apparently.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam

You mean of the live mice you have seen him catch. Cats usually kill and eat on the spot. They rarely bring a live one home as a gift for you to finish off.

What about other things we think are pests like slugs? Can we kill slugs? Leather jackets? If its wrong to take a mouse or squirrels life what about insects?

[quote PlanDeRaccordement]@AllThingsServeTheBeam

You mean of the live mice you have seen him catch. Cats usually kill and eat on the spot. They rarely bring a live one home as a gift for you to finish off.[/quote]
I don't really understand your point my dear. Are you trying to say I'm as bad as some of the nutters on here who kill innocent creatures for their own benefit because I have rescued predators? I'm lost with the point you're trying to get?