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September 3, 2008
Posted: 721 GMT
NORTHUMBERLAND, England – I am having trouble containing a chuckle. And that’s getting on my cameraman Woj’s nerves. We’re reporting on England’s squirrel wars, and Woj is aiming his camera lens through the wood panel and fishnet camouflage opening of our “hide” – that’s sort of a hut meant to conceal humans in the wild – and he needs quiet. Hides are used by hunters shooting wild birds in fields, or documentary film crews filming wildebeest and lions in the African bush. And here we are, in the wilds of northern England, speaking in hushed tones and hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive British red squirrel. We’ve traveled three hours by train from London for pictures of an eight-inch, 10-ounce rodent. Talk about National Geographic light. The heavy issue in this story is whether man has a right to kill off one species in order to save another. In this case, do the air-rifle carrying members of the Red Squirrel Protection Partnership have the right to shoot each and every American gray squirrel they trap on English soil, in order to keep Britain’s native red squirrel from possible extinction? Partnership leader Lord Rupert Redesdale says yes, because the American grays imported to England in the 1880s carry a virus that’s lethal to the British reds. The American squirrels are twice the size of the reds and out-compete them for food and territory. The Red Squirrel Protection Partnership will soon put a bullet into the head of its 20,000 American gray here. The squirrel hunters say more important than numbers killed, is their contention that British reds that were on the run are slowly returning to their patch of northern England. The great American gray squirrel cull isn’t pretty. After the being shot in the back of the head, the squirrels squirm. They jump and twitch. They make an awful whirring noise. The squirrel hunters we spoke to say that is just reflexes. Animal rights groups, like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, aren’t amused. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the hunt is unethical and causes unnecessary suffering. But at least the squirrel carcasses aren’t going to waste. Redesdale, who happens to be a Baron and a Lord in British government, says he’s got a growing network of butchers who “can¹t get enough” of American gray squirrel meat. The irony of a British blue blood leading the fight against American grays aside, apparently squirrel canapes are in high demand among the aristocratic cocktail party set. Does squirrel meat taste like chicken? Yes. And it is quite delicious. Is an American gray squirrel cull, to save the British red, right? Let us know. Posted by: Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN Correspondent |
 
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