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Fury over squirrel drowning
HERE we go again...more cruelty to animals.
I am writing regarding the man who was recently fined by the RSPCA after he had captured and then drowned a grey squirrel.
Why? Why would you want to drown an animal? He said that he had been plagued by squirrels. What were they doing, pinching a few nuts from the bird table or digging up the odd plant? I wouldn't call that being plagued.
As he had caught the animal in a humane trap, why didn't he simply take it somewhere and release it, maybe in a local park or some woodland?
(Yes, I have read all the legislation about releasing them back into the wild; it doesn't mean to say it is right.)
He said that there were no instructions on the packaging that the trap came in to explain what you do with the animal once you have caught it.
Surely common sense should prevail; anyone in their right mind or with any sense of decency would know that the animal should be released and not drowned in the nearest water butt.
I cannot believe also, the advice given by the Forestry Commission which says that a squirrel, if caught, should be bludgeoned only once to kill it.
Why is this information even in the public domain? What happens if it is not killed instantaneously? Are you supposed to keep hitting it until the poor thing is dead or leave it injured to die a slow and agonising death?
The ironic thing is, if this happened to a human then it would be mur-der, but if this happens to an animal then it is supposedly a 'humane way of killing'. What hypocrisy.
And for all the people who say they are vermin and are endangering red squirrels, what gives us the right to decide that we can kill them?
They are sentient beings who have as much right to live on this planet as we do. People should feel honoured if wild animals visit their garden, they can bring hours of pleasure just by watching their antics.
T BILLHAM, Armley
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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