From The Swindon Advertiser:
POLICE officers in Swindon believe they have solved a mystery which has been driving residents in the town nutty for more than a month.
After a number of residents reported that their ABS brake cables had been cut in North Swindon, officers increased patrols, issued warning letters to members of the public and even carried out forensic examinations to find the culprit.
But it was not until an eagle-eyed, off-duty police officer noticed tiny teeth marks on his ABS cables that officers began to realise that the guilty party was not a sinister human being, but in fact, a four-legged, bushy-tailed squirrel.
And so on in a similar fashion, but right at the end is this:
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “Squirrels do have a tendency to chew through wires of all sorts. It is important however that members of the public do not try to catch the squirrels and take the law into their own hands. Squirrels may well bite if cornered which may result in a hospital visit or at least a tetanus jab.”
What do they mean by 'taking the law into their own hands'?
Spotted by Joseph Takagi.
Agnew v Dickens
27 minutes ago
11 comments:
I think they mean if you do catch a squirrel in the act of sabotaging your car, you'd better ensure it goes to a RSPCA-approved vet for the Big Sleep. And not try to dispose of it yourself...
JM, that's what I assumed it meant, but since when do the RSPCA have quasi-statutory powers?
"since when do the RSPCA have quasi-statutory powers?": oh, for ages. Most anomalous, but true (or so I understand).
Anyhoo: eating squirrels. The consensus seems to be that they taste quite good but the work is so finickey that it's not really worth the fuss. I don't propose to eat any this winter; our squirrels seem to have gone away, but we do expect to be visited by pheasants and partridge again.
I suggest deep-fried or very heavily grilled. That way you can crunch the bones and just about everything else and you don't have to gut and fillet, which is the fiddly bit. They skin very much like rabbits, which is a skill easy enough to acquire.
D, this article begs to differ (but it may be wrong). Have you never run over a squirrel?
CI: "you don't have to gut and fillet" Honest? I thought you always had to do that.
MW, The RSPCA's statutory powers are anything but 'quasi',more like 'stasi'.
So many questions unanswered though, such as, what is an 'ABS cable', and why would they uniquely fulfill the culinary, dietary or hygiene needs of Sciuridae?
After consulting the lady wife, it seems I may have been misinformed. Apparently they do indeed need to be gutted, and grilled or done in a pot like a small rabbit. And like a rabbit you spit out the bones as you go along.
Mrs Ingram offers no opinion as to the taste of the animal, but they used to be eaten by the poorer villagers around here.
Chuckles, I suggest it's more likely to fulfil their ludic or psychological needs. I don't know about squirrels (as is clear from my previous comment) but our rabbit loves cables. How he hasn't yet killed himself and burnt the house down I don't know. He also likes carpets, wooden furniture, plaster walls, books, magazines and curtains, none of which have any appreciable nutritional value. I bear this with resignation as I shall, one day, have the last laugh...
Ch, I don't know, but apparently a lot of animals chew cables. maybe to sharpen their teeth? Maybe they taste nice when they are warm?
CI, ta for update. This is the 'blogosphere, so factual accuracy is important. And as long as villagers are eating squirrels rather than the other way round, there's not much to worry about :-)
Squirrels have also been known to gnaw at the lead on roofs. Presumably not an activity that is habit-forming.
Squirrels, and other small destructive wild animals, are why God gave us rifles.
As in:-
"If God did not intend us to have guns, he would not have given us wild animals."
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