There seems to be a big campaign against grey squirrels coming up this season in England. For, says a report in the London Times, there is concern about the damage they do to trees by eating the bark during spring and summer - the growing seasons. So what are they going to do? They are going to put down Warfarin, better known as a rat poison. The animals die bleeding to death, from memory. So that other wild life will not be affected, the report says, the Warfarin will be placed in feed hoppers that other wildlife cannot enter. That would be an ingenious device. Can these authorities be certain? The permission to use the poison came from the British Forestry Minister Lord Lindsay. He said that the damage to beech and oak in some areas is such, according to the Minister, that it is proving a disincentive to new tree planting. People who own land just wouldn't invest in woodlands simply to have them destroyed in the first years.
Yes, a friend had a beech planting severely damaged a few years ago. That was in Ireland. Not so long ago, driving into his fields, about a dozen grey squirrels were seen, on their hind legs, munching something, or running up and down tree trunks. Our friend is a philosopher and a noted arboriculturalist.
What other animal must be stamped out? Not the otter. We used to hunt them to death. Now protected. Now, the badger: it's not quite open season on him, you need official permission to kill him, or the services of an official. We wouldn't have to do that if we could clean up the bovine TB, but it appears we can't. Anyone remember, by the way, that a Young Irelander on the run in Kerry was fed badger ham for his breakfast in the safe house?
The fox you can't kill off. The more you do, the more they breed. They will outlive human kind. Who wants to kill the hedgehog? George Borrow was it, perhaps in Lavengro, said that gypsies baked them in mud to get rid of the quills, and found them delicious.
Have we stopped shooting mink? Trout anglers used to do it. Some people now think mink have been absorbed into the wild life system, without much harm. And, fortunately, no one has yet found a reason for going after the pine marten. Legally or otherwise.
You will remember that squirrel pie is a recognised dish in parts of North America. Could Lord Lindsay have the grey squirrels trapped and marketed, and set off a posh foodie fashion in London?