road kill

"Mark Thompson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A pal of mine is a Parkie, and she regularly distresses the more
sensitive kids on school visits by describing grey squirrels along the
lines of "rat with good PR".

People say that as if it makes 'em bad. Rats are lovely little things.

Rats are humans biggest enemy after ourselves and viruses. They are directly
responsible for a large amount of 3rd world poverty, destroying over 60% of
crops produced, and about doubling the cost of food production.

They also destroy biodiversity by waging relentless war on birds, insects, and
other mammals.

Quoted message said:

Kind of. They're like pigeons but they don't [censored] on your head.

Yeah, but they pollute your food and your environment and in some cases they
spread airborne viruses that are fatal to humans. Lovely chaps.

Be careful what you wish for.
--
Mark South: World Citizen, Net Denizen

David Off said:

Graeme said:

JohnB <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Grey squirrels are an
introduced species (from America) and they are doing a very succesful
job of ousting our native red squirrels as they are bigger and more
agressive.

More pop-anti-grey-squirrel PR. You could say that humans, dogs or cats
are an introduced species doing a good job of wiping out the native
wildlife.

You could say that, but you wouldn't be replying to my post.

John B

Graeme said:

Rabbits are also a non-native species (introduced by the Normans, or was
it the Romans?) so, in my books, are prime candidates for eradication.

You might care to know then that the whole of the UK was declared a
"Rabbit Free Zone" (way back in the '50's I think) and that land
owners have a legal duty to control rabbit populations.

--
Mark

http://www.gunculture.net

"the subjects... may have arms for their defence"
English Bill of Rights

Robert Bruce said:

In any case, if you've ever seen one close up (the pine forests at Formby in
Merseyside is a good place in traditional roadie terretory) you'll know that
they're scrawny little things and not so cute as you'd expect.

They are still there?
I remeber being taken there when i was still in short trousers to see
them (over 40 mumble mumble years ago).
I had an aunt who lived in Formby and i had travelled up by steam train.

John B

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Colin Blackburn said:

Odd term. Vermin describes animals that are destructive to crops, game
birds and domestic animals, ie animals that farmers and gamekeepers
don't like. Not sure the grey squirrel qualifies.

A pal of mine is a Parkie, and she regularly distresses the more
sensitive kids on school visits by describing grey squirrels along the
lines of "rat with good PR".

While visiting another pal who was working as a ranger in the Grand
Canyon, we were taking a stroll along the rim and came across a couple
of touroids feeding the squirrels next to a "please do not feed the
squirrels" sign. Dave (not in uniform) asked them to desist, they said
something about them being so cute and carried on. Dave tries #2
gambit: "Do you know that the squirrels in this park carry bubonic
plague?" (they do, fact fans!). That seemed to have more effect, Exit
touroids stage left.

Tilgate park in Crawley has a really neat little wildlife centre with
wild (ish) red squirrels (AWWWW!); they can get out of their cage
through a hole which is too big for grey ones to get in and eat their
food, there are also squirrel feeders on the trees outside which have
a trapdoor, if grey squirrels try to get into them they are too heavy
and fall out, so they have all gone elsewhere and left the reds to
it.There are also albino ones in the wild, lack of greys keeps
predators away. Also some neat MTB trails.

mae <[email hidden]> wedi ysgrifennu:

Quoted message said:

Robert Bruce said:

In any case, if you've ever seen one close up (the pine forests at
Formby in Merseyside is a good place in traditional roadie
terretory) you'll know that they're scrawny little things and not so
cute as you'd expect.

They are still there?

Yes, they're still there. At least they were at this time last year.
Protected by the fact that there are no deciduous woods for many miles
around. Peter Clinch elsewhere in this thread explains that grey squirrels
don't like coniferous forests much.

Quoted message said:

I remeber being taken there when i was still in short trousers to see
them (over 40 mumble mumble years ago).
I had an aunt who lived in Formby and i had travelled up by steam
train.

An Aunt in Formby, now there's crachach. The railway is now part of
MerseyRail's Northern Line and all of the trains smell of [censored].

--
Rob

Please keep conversations in the newsgroup so that all may contribute
and benefit.

Robert Bruce said:

An Aunt in Formby, now there's crachach. The railway is now part of
MerseyRail's Northern Line and all of the trains smell of [censored].

Perhaps that's why she moved to Richmond.
But then the trains are SWT and smell of worse :-(

John B

Quoted message said:

What would anyone else have done

I would have liked to have killed the animal, because there's no way
it'll recover from such an injury and it's in misery.

But how to do it?

I've wondered about this problem, too.

I cycle with a minimal set of bike tools. I wonder if it's possible to
drive a screwdriver into the animals brain to provide a quick and
painless death?

--
Callas

Callas said:

I cycle with a minimal set of bike tools. I wonder if it's possible
to drive a screwdriver into the animals brain to provide a quick and
painless death?

If I weren't such a coward, I'd wring its neck. Isn't that the done thing?

Callas said:

I cycle with a minimal set of bike tools. I wonder if it's possible to
drive a screwdriver into the animals brain to provide a quick and
painless death?

Can't you test it on a petrolhead first? ;-)

John B

Graeme said:

Rabbits are also a non-native species (introduced by the Normans, or was
it the Romans?) so, in my books, are prime candidates for eradication.
For one thing, it has been said that if it weren't for the large areas
of short grass and numerous holes they left around the Scottish
countryside, then the game of golf would never have been invented.

With respect, you are wrong I think.
The original game of golf was played on links courses,
which are the areas of dunes and grass beside the sea.
The bunkers were sand holes in the dunes, and the holes would have been
areas blown out by the wind.
I might be wrong - but I've never heard that the holes were rabbit holes.

in message <[email hidden]>, Mark South

(') said:

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, elyob
([email hidden]'😉 wrote:

That's no reason to leave it suffering. I would have cycled over its
head and crushed its skull. Death is inevitable, but suffering is
unnecessary.

I wonder whether squirrels would share the peculiarly human view that
suffering
should be ended at the cost of shortening life? Anyone ever asked a
squirrel?

Is it not possible that everybody wants to kill the squirrel as
quickly as possible so that their own discomfort at being reminded of
their own mortality can end as soon as possible?

Finally, it's easy to make snap decisions about wanting to eradicate
vermin.

I didn't say anything about vermin. I wouldn't leave anything which was
mortally injured to die a slow death, no matter how cute it was. If it
can't recover, kill it quick. If it might recover with care and
treatment but you're not, for one reason or another, prepared to offer
that care and treatment, kill it quick. Leaving creatures to suffer is
an abrogation of moral responsibility.

Of course I don't know for certain the squirrels don't enjoy dying
slowly in pain unable to drag themselves to a place of safety. Maybe
they do. But on the balance of probabilities I'm prepared to assume
they don't.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

---===***<<< This space to let! >>>***===---
Yes! You, too, can SPAM in the Famous Brooke Rotating .sig!
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in message <[email hidden]>, Robert Bruce

(') said:

In any case, if you've ever seen one close up (the pine forests at
Formby in Merseyside is a good place in traditional roadie terretory)
you'll know that they're scrawny little things and not so cute as
you'd expect.

I'm fortunate to live in one of those places where reds are still
common, so I see them often and photograph them now and again, as here
<URL:http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/tmp/squirrel1-detail.jpg>.

I defy you to say he's either scrawny or not cute.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Error 1109: There is no message for this error

Dave Larrington said:

It appears that I am not to be made redundant after all, but rather to
receive a New Job with More Money and all the Womp Rats I can eat. AND I
get to trouser the fat bribe they gave me to stay an extra three months.
Yay!

Indeed! Splendiferous news!

Except possibly for the Womp Rats which don't sound particularly
appetising, unless you're a Jawa.

Have some Conga Rats instead! :-)

--
Carol
"You wouldn't like me when I'm happy." - Angel

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 18:00:13 +0100, Callas <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What would anyone else have done

I would have liked to have killed the animal, because there's no way
it'll recover from such an injury and it's in misery.

But how to do it?

I've wondered about this problem, too.

I cycle with a minimal set of bike tools. I wonder if it's possible to
drive a screwdriver into the animals brain to provide a quick and
painless death?

A standard method of suicide in Oxbridge's examination halls is to
stick a pencil up your nose then slam your face, pencil first, down on
the table. I have heard that it is a quick and painless method of
killing oneself, but how anyone knows, I am not quite sure.

So, in this case, the thing to do would be to stick a small allen key
up the hapless squirrel's nose and bang it in hard with a locally
available rock.

On 11/6/04 9:37 pm, in article [email hidden],

Gonzalez said:

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 18:00:13 +0100, Callas <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What would anyone else have done

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I would have liked to have killed the animal, because there's no way
it'll recover from such an injury and it's in misery.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But how to do it?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've wondered about this problem, too.

Quoted message said:

So, in this case, the thing to do would be to stick a small allen key
up the hapless squirrel's nose and bang it in hard with a locally
available rock.

Use the technique used for killing rats in the lab..

grab the tail where it exits the body and swing rapidly , bringing the neck
in contact with a hard edge (top tube of the bike would do.) This will break
the neck and kill the creature instantly.

...d

in message <[email hidden]>, Trevor Barton

(') said:

David Off said:

More pop-anti-grey-squirrel PR. You could say that humans, dogs or
cats are an introduced species doing a good job of wiping out the
native wildlife.

Yeah, you have to draw a line somewhere, otherwise all species reduce
to being non-native because originally the earth was popilated only
by pond-slime precursors! 1000 years or so is plently long enough for
the rabbit to be considered native in the UK, but 100 years or so
is not long enough for it to be considered native in Australia. In
the former instance, it's integrated and in balance with the rest of
the ecosystem.

I would not agree in the least. Mind you, it's possible that rabbits
would be in balance with the rest of the ecosystem if people didn't go
around killing their natural predators. But since they do, rabbits are
in suitable habitats a hugely destructive plague, eroding hillsides and
destroying forests. Mind you, the same can be said of sheep (which also
aren't native but have been here for far longer) and red deer (which
probably are native by any reasonable definition).

Bring back the wolf, I says. And I'm not joking.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; better than your average performing pineapple

Gonzalez said:

A standard method of suicide in Oxbridge's examination halls is to
stick a pencil up your nose then slam your face, pencil first, down on
the table. I have heard that it is a quick and painless method of
killing oneself, but how anyone knows, I am not quite sure.

I thought it was a standard story for the students to amuse themselves with.

James

Reply to Dave Larrington

Quoted message said:

Yay! Oddly enough, the Chief Evil SCIENCE Squirrel was here yesterday, so
if James' injured squirrel was a touch on the portly side, swearing in
'melican and answering to the name of "Craig Lathrop"...

It appears that I am not to be made redundant after all, but rather to
receive a New Job with More Money and all the Womp Rats I can eat

Assuming that the Evil Squirrels don't read u.r.c. ;-)

--
Mark, UK.
We hope to hear him swear, we love to hear him squeak,
We like to see him biting fingers in his horny beak.

In news:[email hidden],
Gonzalez <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

A standard method of suicide in Oxbridge's examination halls is to
stick a pencil up your nose then slam your face, pencil first, down on
the table. I have heard that it is a quick and painless method of
killing oneself, but how anyone knows, I am not quite sure.

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/pencils.asp