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!

He needs watching. Men who take pleasure in harming/killing animals generally enjoy harming children.

@HeartvsBrain may I please request you look in a dictionary. Or allow your brain to win.

Culling means to kill with a specific aim of reducing population numbers. Killing is already in the definition of "cull" and anyone with half a brain knows that.

I love the idea that red squirrels catching the virus from other reds is not a problem caused by grey squirrels.

Grey squirrels introduced thevirus into the UK and our pool of red squirrels.

Reds and greys don't live in close harmony

Once one red squirrel had the virus it passed it on to another and another... virus vector. Have we learned nothing from living with Covid?

And shooting greys a a regular part of land management. Having been threatened by one pised on rotten pears I have shot and eaten few myself (with pigeon as mentioned above)! A pissed grey running down the roof of the house, leaping on you teeth bared, isn't something you want to experience twice!

Like rats (and I had pet rats for about 30 years) they are vermin and do a lot of physical damage to all sorts of property.

Being all bleeding heart over them when they aren't eating your house, trees etc is easy enough. But once they have done thousands of pounds worth of damage you son get your head round the fact that they neeed to be culled.

If we reintroduced some other indigenous wildlife they could be predated to manageable levels - killed by tooth and claw as opposed to a gun. Parts of Ireland have had some success with pine martens.

I hope everyone who is upset that people shoot and eat squirrels and pigeons are vegans. Those animals have a much better life and death than the meat you buy from the supermarket.

dworky

He needs watching. Men who take pleasure in harming/killing animals generally enjoy harming children.

Good grief, what a leap from legally shooting to harming children!!!

May I please strongly request that you, and everyone else on mumsnet who use that evil term "cull", use the correct word instead. The word you are looking for, and that means exactly what you are talking about, is "Kill". It seems that far too many people think that "culling" an animal is the moral thing to do. But it is not. To cull an animal is to kill it, it really is that simple, and that horrific.

You can point that out as often as you want. And many others, whose livelihoods and properties are damaged by grey will respond that killing is the ppint of culling. Culling is not eradication but reducing a population to manageable size - one that doens' cause too much damage to the environment.

Your horrific is someone elses way of managing the land.

And if they didn't exist nor would the food chain - meat nor veg!

Or the planet!

Greys are vermin and it’s illegal to release them if caught. Good on him for actually doing something about the pests.

Perfectly legal to shoot to kill with an air rifle.

@countrygirl99

I have never released them further than my garden

Probably back in the house before you then

I save them from my house. I have 3 cats.

Does he live in a very isolated place? If someone shot a squirrel round here there'd be mass panic and the police would be sent out to investigate the shot.

@mellicauli

One made a nest in our roof. It cost £900 to get rid. I hate squirrels.

THIS, if you had squirrels in your attic, chewing wires, gnawing through rafters, you would definitely be of the same opinion. Just because they look cute with their fluffy tails, they are an absolute menace, they are vermin.

@FestiveMayo

Does he live in a very isolated place? If someone shot a squirrel round here there'd be mass panic and the police would be sent out to investigate the shot.

How loud do you think air rifles are?

I was thinking more someone might see the rifle or hear the squirrel screaming.

But I don't know how loud a squirrel screams I guess

I live in an area with a protected red squirrel population and the greys are culled by land managers. They’re vermin.

Our native species get bullied out by overseas imposters. Much like the poor white clawed crayfish. I think it’s much sadder to allow a species to die out than to manage the numbers of those that breed in their hundreds and thousands.

An air rifle sound wouldn't be recognised by many a pfft sound it's not like the sound of a shotgun

Making the excuse that they are trying to save the red squirrels, erm too late - survival of the fittest and all that. It's a shame as the reds are native but killing the greys is not the answer

The couple in question lived in an area WITH red squirrels- don’t you remember all the footage of them in their garden- so how is it ‘too late?’ That couples culling of the greys was helping to support their local red population.

Grey squirrels are a man-made problem; we introduced them into the UK countryside so we need to keep the numbers down. It’s not survival or the fittest when man created the situation!

I regularly trap & shoot grey squirrels in my garden, they eat all the bird seed so it’s the only way to try to prevent it, they are a nuisance. I use an air rifle & I take them in the shed & do it once I get them in the traps. I did check the legality before I started shooting them & it isn’t illegal.

It always makes me laugh that people put food out for birds but are upset that squirrels eat some of it. Why are they happy to feed some wild life but not others? I'd rather have a grey squirrel at my feeder than Jackdaws or starlings, they're a real pain and will strip everything (or keep coming back if you try to get rid of them, jackdaws especially). At least squirrels are fun to watch, but if you don't want to encourage them then just don't put out food, or try squirrel proof feeders - it's not complicated. They've been here for over a hundred years so I doubt they're leaving any time soon.

I'm also amazed at people comparing squirrels with rats - last time I looked squirrels weren't spreading any potentially life threatening diseases like Weil's disease. There is literally no comparison. Not to mention I've never heard of anyone having squirrels nesting in their house (not saying it's not possible just never heard of it) while round here we have mice coming in nearly every year and our neighbour had rats - ironically due to feeding the birds. If they're coming into your house and causing problems then I have no problem with people killing them.

It also makes me laugh that people are saying 'I hope you're vegan if you've got a problem with this' I don't have a problem if it's being properly killed and eaten but at no point has the OP suggested these squirrels are being eaten so it's a moot point and I have no idea why people are bring up vegetarianism or veganism.

I have no problem with them being killed properly to protect red squirrels and people trapping and killing them if they come in the house but people taking random pot shots at wildlife in the garden is pretty pathetic IMO, especially if you have close neighbours. I know I wouldn't be impressed.

Squirrels, rats and mice are all amazing and worthwhile creatures in my opinion. Trapping and poisoning, and shooting or chasing with dogs, are all awful ways to kill a sentient being.

There is also the issue that most problems caused by 'vermin' are actually caused by us - if we didn't leave food waste everywhere there would be less rats, we brought the grey squirrel here. Yet it's fine to make the animals suffer for our mistakes.

It's a shame as the reds are native but killing the greys is not the answer

Around here they are routinely trapped to protect the reds. It’s the norm and I haven’t met anybody who objects to it. They may exist, of course.

An air rifle sound wouldn't be recognised by many a pfft sound it's not like the sound of a shotgun

Air rifles can make quite a crack, enough to scare sheep. Some people use silencers, particularly when hunting.

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.

Yet it's fine to make the animals suffer for our mistakes.

That depends where you place your line, doesn't it?

The damage greys cause to other animals?

Not to mention I've never heard of anyone having squirrels nesting in their house

We found a dead one in our attic. It had been chewing the electrical wiring. It probably deserved a Darwin Award. Luckily, it didn’t result in our house burning down.