"outdoorman"
"Auronotcs"it always confounded me why someone would kill something they had absolutely no intention of eating.
Squirrels can be very destructive pests. We had
lots of them around our 2 acre wooded lot. The last straw was when I heard a ruckus in my car one day. I shook and banged on the car and the ruckus continued. I finally popped the hood and a squirrel was sitting right on top of my engine. After reading about people spending thousands of dollars on new wiring harnesses due to this problem I decided that was it. They got into the attic once before and chewed some wire up there. They dig holes in the yard, tear up the wife's flower pots, raid the bird feeders, chew on stuff...etc. I had a pumper that was effective at short range but then I got the Diana 34. We don't have a squirrel problem any more. We've eaten some but that's not the primary reason for killing them. I love nature and all living creatures but sometimes you have to draw a line. When the wife screams about a spider in the house, I capture it and release it outside. I've been bitten by a black widow spider, twice, but I don't kill them when I see them. I have no problem with hunting as long as it is for providing food, pest control or invasive species control.