Killing harmless little animals for no good reason but entertainment is barbaric and simply wrong ! 
Squirrel Season
- Thread starter Richmond B. Funkenhouser
- Start date
Killing harmless little animals for no good reason but entertainment is barbaric and simply wrong !
Imma gonna bet you think nothing of Dealing Death to scorpions, rattlesnakes, spiders, mice, cockroaches, termites, flies, mosquitoes, lice, ticks, and hornets, though. They're also little, and animals. But they are just doing what they are designed and programmed to do... And the "harmless" thing is relative. How often, how much, and what other life forms do they "harm"?
When it comes to squirrels, humans are omnivores and routinely eat too many animals to list, from snails to horses. Squirrels are no exception.
So. Either killing other life forms to keep yourself alive---or improve your life---is categorically wrong, or it isn't. You can't have it both ways.
PS --- Life includes plants, by the way. (I guarantee that if an acre of cabbage was found growing on Mars, the next day's headline would be "Extra-terrestrial Life Discovered at Last!")
PPS --- Rocks have precious little nutritional value and are hard on your teeth.
I’ll occasionally go on a squirrel hunt. But this is what really gets me going when I’m in the woods…
@PaulRVA I grew up the same… And I’m not getting misty eyed thinking about it - it’s just allergies.
Spending all that time in the woods was good for me as a kid, and by the time I joined the Army I couldn’t miss a target.
These days I just fatten squirrels up in my back yard with nuts and seeds. Figure it is my obligation to help their population recover from the harvesting I did with my Marlin 60.
Spending all that time in the woods was good for me as a kid, and by the time I joined the Army I couldn’t miss a target.
These days I just fatten squirrels up in my back yard with nuts and seeds. Figure it is my obligation to help their population recover from the harvesting I did with my Marlin 60.
Personally I trap them. I specifically emailed the police chief to ask whether I could fire a .22 or a pellet gun in my yard and unfortunately the town laws don't allow it.
I caught an albino like this one (in our front yard) two years ago. Never trapped a meaner, tougher squirrel.
And as for mushrooms, it's been a good year. After a couple of years in the area, I finally found the chanterelles and a few others.
I caught an albino like this one (in our front yard) two years ago. Never trapped a meaner, tougher squirrel.
And as for mushrooms, it's been a good year. After a couple of years in the area, I finally found the chanterelles and a few others.
Depends on where you live.As a kid in South Louisiana I was in the woods limiting out constantly and I’ve busted thousands. I can honestly say that those were the best times spent in the woods and the best hunts in my life.
Nothing compares for me including upland, waterfowl and big game.
I’ll take a double 20ga, a pipe and a shell vest and stay out till I’m stumbling out of the woods in the dark. I wonder if kids now still even do that ?
Now I put peanuts out for the bastards to keep the wife happy
Around here all the middle and high schools have opening day of regular season off as a "holiday".
Before the day off thing, the halls of schools were empty.
Hunter saftey courses are always full, and more courses need to be added every year.
Back in the early 1900s when white tail deer were nearly extinct, squirrel hunting became extremely popular. In many areas it remains the #1 small game hunted.No sure shooting squirrels count as “hunting”.
They are plentiful, they are relatively easy to get, and they are loaded with nutrients that store bought meat hasn't contained in many decades.
If you can hunt for your keys, or if you can hunt for rocks, you sure as heck can hunt for squirrels.
24 of those harmless critters have chewed the heck out of my shed trying to get into it. They were not content with the acorns and bird seed. So they got lead injections and were left where they lay but were gone come the morning thanks to the red fox.Killing harmless little animals for no good reason but entertainment is barbaric and simply wrong !
Each to their own.Killing harmless little animals for no good reason but entertainment is barbaric and simply wrong !
But humans were designed to eat meat, as well as other things.
Compared to the way the meat in your local grocery store is procured, hunting is very humane, and far less barbaric. This is why my family decided years ago to grow 100% of our own meat and vegetables. But I dont look down on, or comment about people who buy store meat.
Im assuming you are either vegetarian or vegan, and that's your choice.
I don’t believe in hunting for sportKilling harmless little animals for no good reason but entertainment is barbaric and simply wrong !
or trophies .
If I pop it or catch it then it gets cooked or given to someone who will use it.
I think many miss the posters point, at least the point I took. I would agree with this statement. Food, protecting property is not just for entertainment. The guy in the tannerite video is a different story.
Same here. I hunted for a living After the Army but a different kind of hunting that involved scouring the earth and court orders to bag the prize. That helps you to lose taste for it after you see enough evil in society. I used to hunt my property and surrounding farms but when my wife started feeding the deer during her cancer treatments for several years our place became a sanctuary for every wild animal imaginable. The Birds, Squirrels, Deer and Rabbits here are well taken care of and almost like our children these days.
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I have never personally been a trophy hunter, but have friends who are. They are good enough people who do what they do for their own reasons.
Ive been on many elk hunts, moose hunts, goat hunts, Mule deer hunts, antelope hunts......but all for meat, and ENTERTAINMENT!!
Ive never kept a head, but do keep and use the skins.
People need to remember that hunters are 100% responsible for conserving wildlife....100%.
Teddy Roosevelt was an avid hunter. He "invented" the national park system for the sole reason of protecting nature and wildlife. About 90% of wildlife conservation money in the US comes from hunting licenses, state leases, and hunter saftey courses. The rest comes from donations and national park admissions.
Thousands of landowners have protected millions of acres of land specifically for wildlife and hunting.
This land would otherwise be sold and used for Walmarts and government housing.
Ive been involved in the hunting/conservation community for over 40 years. I can tell you that its not the hippies and "meat is murder" crowd who are protecting the wildlife and wild lands, its the hunters, homesteaders, and outdoors people.
Two things can be true at the same time. I am a veterinarian as a profession, but also a hunter.
But, we also have "yard deer", and "yard squirrels" who are not hunted.
Its an odd thing to walk out on opening morning of big game season and try not to spook the 8 point buck and his gals from the yard. They could be killed if they get on the neighboring properties.
All this while going "off farm" to kill one of their kin. It all makes sense in one's head over time.
It’s the same thing here.Two things can be true at the same time. I am a veterinarian as a profession, but also a hunter.
But, we also have "yard deer", and "yard squirrels" who are not hunted.
Its an odd thing to walk out on opening morning of big game season and try not to spook the 8 point buck and his gals from the yard. They could be killed if they get on the neighboring properties.
All this while going "off farm" to kill one of their kin. It all makes sense in one's head over time.
They make it over to our spread every evening and during hunting season they practically live here full time. Same thing with the neighbor's property which is an enormous farm. Fortunately the Bear stay on her spread for the most part although I lose an occasional feeder I consider it a trade off for solitude and distance from the burbs.
Good grief. My father did some bounty hunting back in the 60s-70s. Just him in a Chevelle Wagon driving all over creation with a revolver in his waistband and a Yello Bole skater clenched in his teeth.
The heart can soften over time. Our place is practically a sanctuary for birds, squirrels and rabbits. The rabbits wreak havoc on my garden each year to the point that “Exactly whose garden is this?” has become a valid question, but I don’t mind. I still end up with plenty of beans.
The kids out hereDepends on where you live.
Around here all the middle and high schools have opening day of regular season off as a "holiday".
Before the day off thing, the halls of schools were empty.
Hunter saftey courses are always full, and more courses need to be added every year.
I enjoy animals of all sorts from afar but I've come to think of squirrels as acrobatic tree rats.
They are tough and territorial too. My feist tried and tried to catch one particular squirrel all year and when he finally caught it he got a muzzle full of squirrel bites and came yelping back home. When I looked outside the squirrel was barking from his tree like “Yeah, come back if you want some more.”