Grey squirrel cull bounties urged

[CornishmanUK 0]

Grey Squirrel Cull

 

Just found this on the BBC News website.

 

Bounties should be paid for the shooting or trapping of grey squirrels, according to a Conservative MSP.

Murdo Fraser said consideration must be given to such measures to preserve numbers of native red squirrels.

 

The party's deputy leader said that only suitably qualified people with shotgun licences, like gamekeepers, would get the money.

 

However, an animal protection group said the proposal would lead to "carnage in the countryside".

 

Scotland is reported to be home to more than 75% of the UK's red squirrel population. However, they have been under threat of being displaced by the non-native grey.

 

Grey squirrels compete for food with the red squirrels and can carry a virus which kills them.

 

Scottish Natural Heritage has announced plans for a cull in areas including the north east, Argyll, Loch Lomond and the Highlands, where reds are most under threat; and grey squirrels are being shot on sight by patrols in the Borders.

 

Bounties have previously been paid in the UK but the system was abandoned in the 1950s because of abuse.

 

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Mr Fraser said the smaller population could be wiped out unless action is taken and a bounty of a few pounds per grey should be on offer.

 

He has lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament seeking the backing of fellow MSPs for his proposal.

 

He said: "Scotland's red squirrel is now under serious threat from a foreign invader.

 

"Areas such as Perthshire and Angus are now the frontline for the red squirrel and we are seeing their numbers under threat in these areas."

Let the games begin!

[Ricky-N.p.p 0]

read this a few weeks ago . i personally shoot grey squirrels on sight anyway but i would welcome this publicity to highlight the problem

[danny boi 0]

its a good idea but surely a shotgun is a little too much for a squig unless its that monster one thats going round the internet with massive b*ll*x!lol

 

i would have thought anybody with an air rifle would be able to claim it aswell? do we realy need a bounty??

 

thanks

dan

[borderboy 80]

Edited December 15, 2006 by borderboy

[Ricky-N.p.p 0]

I agree we dont need a bounty or fee for killing any vermin its our juty as feildsports men/women

and the truth is we will probably never be offered one its a good way to bring some publicity to the problem !

[Guest oldskool]

i shoot them on sight,, i think a bounty will encourage more people to particapate in the cull of them. to me, the b*****ds are just a rat with a furry tail. the objective of this bounty is to wipe the wee buggers out completely and give the reds the chance to recover. it is not to keep numbers low!! to me that would be classed as control. in reality, past bountys always encourages a heavy cull!

 

ps,, i havent seen a red squirrel in years!!

Edited August 2, 2006 by oldskool

[dickyboy 1]

do we realy need a bounty??

 

 

All you need to ask is how many people have traplines throughout all there permission and heavily cull squirrels?? Not many i'm sure! but if there was a bounty then its worth putting in the extra work needed to actually control the numbers rather than kill a few.

 

I hate them with a passion and last year i spent a fair bit of my spare time killing them, yes with a gun but primarily trapping and poisoning them but only on a small amount of land in the grand scheme of things......last year i shot 113 squirrels that i picked up and put down enough poison in squirrel hoppers to kill 700+squirrels if each one ate double the fatal dose.

 

But i didn't have to pay for the poison or cartridges. If i did i could not have done all this!

 

Bring on the bounty!!!

[Guest chilli]

They make yours dogs bleed well if they havnt had a few before :11:

[Guest JOEB]

They make yours dogs bleed well if they havnt had a few before :11:

 

Had 1 with the dogs last winter when out ferreting as it tryed to make a dash over open ground.

I must say that in proportion to its size it had the biggest set of bollocks ive ever seen............lucky fecker and if thats not reason enough to kill em, I dont know what is

JOEB

[jimmyg 6]

I dont want paying for culling greys id gladly do it for free,cant beat a bit of squirell ing

[MikeTheDog 153]

its a good idea but surely a shotgun is a little too much for a squig

thanks

dan

I take it you've never hunted squirrel :11:

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Mr Fraser said the smaller population could be wiped out unless action is taken and a bounty of a few pounds per grey should be on offer.

 

Christ!!! That's a lot of money for doing what comes naturally! Down side is, of course, that they'd fine tune it so only people living within the narrowly defined area could claim - but then, those people could buy in tails from all over at, say, 1.50 each? That'd have the knock on effect of encouraging others around the country to get their fingers out and hit the b*stards harder than ever. Sounds like a Win Win situation? If only the 'General Public' ~ or the usual well motivated, funded and extremely voiciferous Anti's who will claim to speak for them ~ would take off their blinkers and allow it

 

I once read somewhere, in one of the magazines, probably, where some guy mooted a plan for the total eradication of Mustela vison (the North American Mink) from UK. That too involved a bounty system. Only his idea was that the government pitch in a few million pounds (a pittance, compared to the envisaged, benefitial results, obviously) and this system start.

 

I'll kick my own arse till the day I die for not having recorded or remembered the details of how it worked. But the idea was that the pool of cash somehow shifted, in line with results, till the tail of that last mink out there would become worth One Million Pounds. Some sort of 'Pyramid' scheme?

 

Obviously, in the real world, some idiots would try to cheat the system. But regardless of that final eventuality, it'd certainly encourage every man, woman and child out there to hammer mink at every possible occassion.

 

To my way of thinking, Anything that encourages people to hit vermin hards as they can has got to be Good

[Argyll 1]

To add to this didn'tthey have a similiar cull in the 60's or 70's where if you took the tail in to a post office you received money? This is what I was told when I was young but I've never seen anything about it.

 

If anyone knows if this story is valid I'd like a link to it please.

[SHOTGUNSNIPER 47]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz8ZUkw4mUg

OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ya6z-NlDo

 

I like the squirrel launcher - line them up and shoot them at the RSPCA when they are in the neighborhood....

[Lee85 44]

 

Weve took a few down here, gotta keep on top of them though, i love squirrel hunting