Ethics of Squirrel Hunting

Squirrels can be a pest and if they are it is fine to rid yourself of the problem and dispose of them however.

If you are hunting them because you like to hunt then you need to eat them. That is what hunting is.
 
There are simply too many people that love to eat them to just leave them laying. Most would even be willing to clean them if you brought them a mess. I give 3/4 of what I kill away. Not because we don't eat them but because the ones I give them too can't physically go hunt them on their own. I have 4 kids and 2 very fine squirrel dogs. I would be proud to host a hunt for anyone looking to get into squirrel hunting, especially if they bring a kid. I would even cook our harvest in a few different ways to ensure they find a suitable way of consuming them. When you have a renewable resource of meat and you willingly waste it you should be tarred and feathered. A simple fine isn't good enough in my book. I process deer meat before I give it to elders just to ensure it doesn't sit in a freezer and ruin. The op realizes it is wrong and I hope he can show his friend the posts on this forum.
 
Well spoken Boogershooter. You raise a good point that even if the hunter does not wish to consume his quarry, then there are always plenty of other people out there that would be very grateful for the meat. And most of them wouldn't mind cleaning and processing the game themselves.
 
I doubt that a squirrel is any more related to a rat, than you are to a monkey. You can call them a tree rat if you like, but rats they are not. In my world, squirrels are good guys, rats are bad guys.
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People keep rats as pets. I find that as appalling as eating rodents. Take the hair off a squirrel's tail and stick it in a sewer, and you will have a dead ringer for a norway rat.

I experience squirrels, chipmunks, mice, mosquitoes, deer, crows, rats and groundhogs almost exclusively as pests. I find the sentiment that I need to eat any of those if I kill one peculiar.
 
Replace the wiring harness on your vehicle a couple of times and you will wish wanton destruction on the squirrels in your neighborhood. They are cute and all, but they are even more destructive.


Go Joe!

 
As my dad told me many years ago...." If you shoot it or catch it you clean it and eat it....or don't shoot or catch it." The main reason I never went duck hunting. Didn't like the taste of them

Squirrel was another thing. I've shot literally hundreds of them when I was a kid and we ate everyone of them. They were delicious! It is definitely wrong to shoot them and leave them. They're small game, not target practice.
 
Squirrel was another thing. I've shot literally hundreds of them when I was a kid and we ate everyone of them. They were delicious! It is definitely wrong to shoot them and leave them. They're small game, not target practice.
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Are there any rodents I can kill without being obligated to eat them?
 
You could kill every ground hog in the world and it would be OK with me. Sort of kidding, but they are ruining my soybeans not to mention my garden.
 
I have killed thousands of ground hogs (we call them woodchucks up here) and my uncle who hunts with me has killed more than I. They have never been used for anything more than fertilizer.... back down their hole they go. They're just as edible as squirrels and the meat is probably great, since they live on the farmers best alfalfa.

As I said in the other hunting ethics thread, our ethics are arbitrary. If humans have imagined some use for it then we must kill it according to some set of rules. If we haven't, you may kill it indiscriminately.
 
If your friend is hunting squirrels and leaving them lay he is being unethical, because he is only hunting them for the thrill of killing them.......sick. If he was eliminating them because they were pests or nuisance animals, then leaving them lay, while not the best thing to do, would not be as bad. In states where squirrels are considered game animals and have seasons and bag limits, leaving them where they fall is not only unethical, but many times illegal. While most hunters enjoy the hunt, the kill is not the climax, only the end. Folks that hunt just to kill are killing for other reasons that the hunt itself. Kinda like spanking your child. Are you doing it for discipline or just because you like to inflict pain on others?
 
Out west we just shoot ground squirrels for fun. In nevada a hunting license is not even required to shoot them. I have tried to eat them but they taste worse then they smell. We use to go threw 1000 rounds of 22 lr a day shooting ground squirrels and never put a dent in the population. Same deal with Jack rabbits and pack rats.

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The main reason I never went duck hunting. Didn't like the taste of them
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Tried "Duck Blood Soup" or Peking Duck?

As I said in the other hunting ethics thread, our ethics are arbitrary. If humans have imagined some use for it then we must kill it according to some set of rules. If we haven't, you may kill it indiscriminately.
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I've simply got better things to do. The ethics for me is if you are wasting a resource someone else has the right and desire to use. Squirrels do not fit in that category. I don't know the growth rate of squirrel populations, but it can't be far behind rabbits.

I've witnessed far too much abuse of people, to include shooting and leaving them to bleed out in the street then to rot like garbage, to worry about a ground squirrel.
 
I don't really care for squirrel as a food item. I don't hunt them except when taking Grandkids out so it's not much of an issue. We bring the carcasses home and feed them to the multitude of cats we have so not really wasted. Considering that we're very likely the only squirrel shooters within a 2(maybe closer to 5) mile radius, I'm not concerned about overuse/waste of the resource.
In other areas, the legal issue of leaving game in the woods un-recovered MAY be a factor.
 
Serial killers often times start with small animals to satisfy they're urge to kill........just saying......

I look forward to taking my son squirrel hunting. It's how I started hunting. Learn some valuable hunting skills in a no pressure, rather casual, and mild weathered environment. Once he gets his hands bloody on some small game he can decide if he wants to pursue larger, more challenging game. Squirrels are a necessary stepping stone IMO for a young hunter. And an excellent start for teaching good hunting ethics.

Now that I'm a little more open minded, I look forward to giving them a taste.
 
GarandTd said:
Serial killers often times start with small animals to satisfy they're urge to kill........just saying.....
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That's a direct insult to several members in this thread and you should retract it and apologize. It's also complete BS.

There has been speculation, whether ever proved by study or not I don't know, that disturbed individuals TORTURE animals before becoming killers. Hunting them for SPORT as opposed to *only* hunting them for FOOD is a completely different question, and you know it.
 
BP said:
That's a direct insult to several members in this thread ...
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The miracle is that this is a thread in which people discuss eating rodents and there hasn't been a single Jeff Foxworthy style joke. "If you salivate every time you see a squirrel..."
 
Thanks Garand, if you think about the definition of seriel killer I would say that must hunters fit that description in atleast one way. We target our pray by stalking it and classifying it. We usually repeat our favorite method of hunting. Down here in the south we usually start with small critters at a young age and as we grow and mature step up to bigger animals. Some of us are hardcore hunters and the urge for bigger better specimens is always burning inside us. I did not take any offense to your posts and I thought it was rather funny. I must say that from what I've seen on TV, the sk's that start out that way usually do it on the family pet. Even the best hunter in the world doesn't harm the family pet and I have quite a few pets just for aiding in my hunting. Squirrel dogs, hog dogs, deer dogs, and blood trailing dogs.

I allow my kids to name every litter of Pigs we get but they all know what is going to happen to them. They don't participate in the dispatch of the pigs but they sure love eating them.
 
Among professional chefs...squirrels are considered a delicacy --- I consider them a delicacy also, and would be extremely upset, if I knew another hunter was in the woods with me, who would just shoot squirrels {grays or mountain fox} for sport and leave them lay.
 
Still protein !!!

The miracle is that this is a thread in which people discuss eating rodents
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The miracle is that this thread has lasted so long. Almost as long as the one about eating Coyotes. ........ :eek:

When the leaves start to fall and I see a squirrel, in the woods, I don't see a rodent, just some tasty protein. I've eaten a lot of strange things and it's still protein ....... :rolleyes:

Bon Apatite and;
Be Safe !!!
 
Thank you boogershooter for not letting your feathers get too ruffled by my sk post. And, for the excellent points you made. Some of which I considered myself after I posted.

Brian, I'm not going to apologize or retract my statement. Who did I insult, poachers? Serial killers? In the same post, I spoke of myself and my offspring killing animals. My panties are not bunched. An ethical hunter shouldn't take offense to what doesn't apply to him or her.

Shooting animals in the woods and leaving them to rot is unethical.
 
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