Quebec considers making fair game out of squirrels
Quebec may soon allow squirrel hunting, an entry-level type of hunting that’s already legal in Ontario and most U.S. states.
A committee will make recommendations to the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks in a few months.
Quebec allows the hunting of small game, ranging from rabbits to foxes to pigeons, but excludes squirrels, which are not native to Quebec (or Eastern Ontario) and arrived only in the 1900s.
Hunters typically use lighter shotguns or .22-calibre rifles to hunt squirrels.
However, the little rodents are popular game elsewhere.
In Pennsylvania, for instance, they’re the top game species in the state, with an average of more than 600,000 killed each year. There’s a bag limit of six per day.
In East Texas, the season runs spring and fall for one week each. An estimated 60,000 Texans hunt squirrels each year; the state parks and wildlife department says it’s a traditional way to introduce children to hunting before they graduate to deer, waterfowl and wild turkey.
Outdoor Canada magazine gives advice on squirrel hunting that includes this tip for scoped .22 users: “Simply centre the crosshairs on the middle of the animal’s head and touch the trigger. Squirrel stew.”
But squirrels aren’t just for stewing. Hunters’ websites have videos and recipes for bacon-wrapped squirrel, squirrel Alfredo, barbecued squirrel, squirrel pizza, Cajun squirrel, chicken-fried squirrel, citrus squirrel, redneck squirrel fry, squirrel dip, mesquite squirrel, squirrel kebabs, squirrel Sloppy Joes, and much more.
Even The Joy of Cooking used to include squirrel recipes back in the 1950s.
A word of warning: After 11 deaths in Kentucky in 1997, medical researchers warned people to stop eating squirrel brains, ever. They are strongly suspected of causing Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, the brain-destroying disease in humans best known from the “mad cow” epidemic. Cooking does not make the brains safe.
Squirrels are all dark meat. tspears@postmedia.com twitter.com/TomSpears1