Posted on 05/11/2008 8:20:25 AM PDT by Daffynition
t's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate.
The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.
At Ridley's Fish and Game shop in Corbridge, Northumberland, the owner David Ridley says he has sold 1,000 - at £3.50 a squirrel - since he tested the market at the beginning of the year. 'I wasn't sure at first, and wondered would people really eat it. Now I take every squirrel I can get my hands on. I've had days when I have managed to get 60 and they've all sold straight away.'
Simpson likens the taste to wild boar. Ridley thinks it is more a cross between duck and lamb. 'It's moist and sweet because, basically, its diet has been berries and nuts,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk ...
It is virtually impossible to “get rabies” from a squirrel.
Researchers have had to literally inject the virus directly into the brains of squirrels to induce rabies infection, which subsequently resulted in death so rapid there was *extremely* little chance of the squirrels transmitting the virus to anything else.
Due the anatomy of a squirrel’s mouth, they also have what is referred to as a “dry bite’ which involves no transferral of saliva.
Licensed squirrel rehabbers never even give rabies a second thought and they get bitten quite frequently.
Researchers have also discovered why possums don’t get rabies.
Their body temperatures are too low to allow the virus to survive long enough to induce active infection.
They are trying to apply this knowledge to future methods of treatment in human rabies cases.
From the CDC:
What is the risk of rabies from squirrels, mice, rats, and other rodents?
Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and chipmunks, ) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area. However, from 1985 through 1994, woodchucks accounted for 86% of the 368 cases of rabies among rodents reported to CDC. Woodchucks or groundhogs (Marmota monax) are the only rodents that may be frequently submitted to state health department because of a suspicion of rabies. In all cases involving rodents, the state or local health department should be consulted before a decision is made to initiate postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).
For more information about rabies in rodents and lagomorphs, see: Childs, J. E., Colby, L., Krebs, J. W., Strine, T., Feller, M., Noah, D., Drenzek, C., Smith, J.S., & Rupprecht, C. E. (1997). Surveillance and spatiotemporal associations of rabies in rodents and lagomorphs in the United States, 1985-1994. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 33(1), 20-27.
AWESOME !!!
Ha, one of my favorite old sayings is “He’s nuttier than squirrel sh!t”.
Squirrel dumplings... mmmmmmmmm
Who are you trying to kid posting a picture of a porkupine for a fisher.
I caught that also. That,s what those of us in West TX, call Desert Beavers.
That's a joke right? have you ever seen a porcupine with tail like that?
I had a state biologist out here checking him out, yeah, it's a Fisher.
Have you ever seen a live fisher or a porkupine.
Have you ever seen a fisher with a flat face.
Your state biologist needs a new career.
Did you ever successfully ID the critter as a Fisher?
There’s a postage stamp park on 2nd Avenue that sits on one of the cross streets that goes to the FDR in the LES I use frequently ... it has a colony of black squirrels. I love it. ;)
YUM!!!! LOL
OMG! That is so funny. Never thought of using a squirrel catapult to get rid of them! Around here there are lots and lots of these bushy tailed rodents and they like to dig up my garden containers. Use dried blood to repel them.
Have you ever seen a fisher with a flat face.
Your state biologist needs a new career.
Have you ever seen a porcupine with a tail 2 1/2 ft. long?
If the biologist needs a new career then maybe we should tell him the animal he tagged two years ago was a porcupine.
Granted, the photo sucks but I'd hope the State of Connecticut after purchasing Fishers from the sate of Maine and having them tagged would know the difference.
Gee, I hope so.
Hey, how did they get into a squirrel thread! lol
Shot a big porky yesterday that most likey would go 2 feet with the tail and a smaller one about 16 inchs long.
Wife just got home and I said come here and look at this picture and tell me what it is. She stated thats a porupine I said its surpose to be a fisher she said that doesn’t look like a fisher at all. Look you can see the quills.
I’ve shot hundreds of porky’s , trapped some and seen lots of fisher. If thats a fisher your photo does really suck.
Look up the posting with the picture of the Fisher.
Yes are right... I would pay money to see that.
I feed the gray squirrel in my yard. They are fun to watch. Last fall they started to disappear. I figured they got run over. This spring I found out that one of my neighbors ate shot them. I am down to 2 this year.
I never shoot the neighborhood squirrels but I have had my fair share of ones out of the neighborhood. Just talking about it I am developing a craving.
...there are estimated to be almost five million grey squirrels in Britain....
***
I wonder how they got to England, as the piece refers to the gray squirrel as the American cousin of the England’s red.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.