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Snuff your own.
On Friday I had the privilege of killing on of our four tiny, family of small tree squirrels.Douglass's I think. I feed them all year long and put sun flower seeds mixed with oatmeal and lard out in another feeder too. A small price to pay, for what they give us. Three months later they start digging, this time to find the nuts they hid buried.
They do dig holes and plant nuts in the fall, only to go back and look for them later and does make a mess in our lawn
Three days ago I found a blow-gun dart, point end down, in the cover of our hot-tub. Yesterday I found one of my squirrels setting in the sun, his back toward me, like he was ashamed of what he did, with the dart, (a blow-gun
dart in through his right eye and out the other side of his skull.) One shot from my.177 rifle to his head and it was done, We took the little guy next next door and left him with the dart still in him.
The father was unhappy with his kids.
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Dave - That sounds like a post from someone who is pretty upset. If those kids still have their dart gun, or whatever it is, I hope their Father teaches them some responsibility for their actions. That SHOULD have been done before they got their "toy". I still remember the lecture my Father gave me before he handed me my first BB gun.:(
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Did ya at least keep the tail?
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Hi Jim,
I am the first to admit that I do enjoy hunting squirrel however I also love feeding the "domesticated ones" that live in town with us. They raid my bird feeders however the birds don't seem to mind and we love the entertainment of watching their antics.
You did the right thing by dispatching the little guy and ending his suffering. That is a tough thing for a good man like you to do but it is the proper thing to do. I totally agree with taking him next door to address the issue too. As a hunter I have no trouble with shooting a wild squirrel but I do not shoot any wildlife that is in town unless it presents a health hazard. Also and perhaps most important of all, if I am not going to eat it I do not kill it. I do not kill for fun or trophies.
I hope the parents teach the kids the difference between hunting for food and killing for fun. I am sorry you lost your little buddy. Easy to get attached to the little guys and gals.:(
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I hope Dad was displeased enough to tan their darling little backsides, preferably with a willow switch. This is the modern age and they probably received a stern talking to then were sent to their room with it's flat screen TV, computer, X-Box, cell phone, etc.
I really hate cleaning up someone else's mess. Thanks for ending the little guys misery, JC.
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Just venting I suppose, but I was upset. The dad found the critter on his front porch when the whole family got home from shopping. The blo-guns were destroyed on the spot. Deanna went over about half an hour afterwords. She is satisfied the dad took proper actions, after, if not before.
TODAY.... I was looking up in a huge tree the little squirrels use to romp in. We had three, now I had seen just two.
IN FACT... I can not actually describe in detail what I saw happen, three times really, but...there is hope for tomorrow,,, well, a few months after that I guess. But there should be the sounds of little feets in the trees in the future. :)
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Sounds like mom and dad are good parents for the kids. I know that family couldn't have better neighbors. I know I would have destroyed the guns and done like Ron said, tanned a couple of little butts.
If you want to have a real blast with those little critters pick up a squirrel call and some evening when you two are sitting out in the yard use it to chatter to them. They will come in close to investigate so one of you might want to have the camera handy too.:D
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JC, about 5 years ago VEE started feeding the TWO little gray squirrels that visited our house. They brought their kids the next spring so the kids would know what house to find the really good peanuts and sunflower seeds at. The following spring those brought their kids, etc, etc, etc. Cuhee, our old Australian Kelpie started to chase squirrels when there was just the two, and I told him NO. Never chased another. The new kid, Ghillie, isn't so well behaved and gives proper chase, but just isn't fast enough to catch one.
All in all there are near Fifteen little gray squirrels that frequent our house. Well, they aren't so little, what with all the peanuts (50 pounds per month) and oily black sunflower seeds (25 pounds a month) that they go through. When they jump on the roof from the trees they land with a thud and can clearly be heard scampering across the roof.
Whenever we see a little gray squirrel dead on the road we count "ours", especially the ones who are different from the rest.
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That's too bad. I know I feel bad if a local squirrel gets hit by a car, yet I wouldn't feel any quilt of taking one while out hunting in the woods. The only thing I can add is a saying by my father: " You can't put a grown up head on a kid's shoulders". Plenty of Kids using BB guns,slingshots or "Toy" bow & arrows have shot songbirds and other small animals without thinking of the damage they could do. Hopefully the kids learned their lesson.