Plea to drop squirrel hunt spurned
Humane Association calls event “wanton destruction”
Squirrel hunts in rural areas have been an annual winter tradition for years, where participants pair up and compete for prizes over who can pick off the most rodents.
It’s an activity outdoor groups say is a way to raise funds for charitable causes and keep animal populations in check.
Yet while killing squirrels (up to six a day) is legal, the New York State Humane Association is asking a Columbia County club to call off its annual contest scheduled for Feb. 27, contending the event organized by the Germantown Sportsmen’s Association focuses on the “wanton destruction of helpless animals.”
“Killing in the name of fun and family bonding seems contradictory and lacking in respect for living beings and their place in nature, and squirrels have their place in nature like all wildlife,”
wrote Humane Association chairman Harold Hovel in a Feb. 5 plea asking the club to replace the hunt with an event that focuses on “promoting family values.”
While the Kingstonbased nonprofit acknowledges squirrels are not endangered, there are other factors it contends that make the event unpalatable. The Humane Association says it lobbies for state legislation, and also provides anti-cruelty education to law enforcement and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals groups.
“With the rise in crime that is occurring in our communities, coupled with the disrespect and rude behavior that seems to be predominate in our society currently, do we really need to add to the callousness of adults and children by encouraging them to outdo each other in the number of helpless animals they kill and bag?” the association said in a news release about the letter it sent to the Germantown group. The town is about 10 miles south of the city of Hudson in Columbia County.
However, organizers said they have no plans to call off the hunt — despite getting vulgar phone calls and even death threats from across the U.S.
“This is what we’ve been dealing with,” said a spokesperson for the Germantown Sportsmen’s Association, who asked for anonymity citing the
threats. “There are two members with their names out there and they’re paying the price and I’m sad for that.”
Reached by phone Sunday morning, one of those members, whose first name and phone number is listed on promotional materials advertising the event, referred questions to the spokesperson. A poster for the event, posted on the group’s Facebook page, shows the Looney Toons character Elmer Fudd pointing a gun at a squirrel that is his size.
Participants in the “Squirrel Scramble,” which is now in its seventh year, will pay $20 to pair up in two-person teams and set out near dusk for the hunt, which organizers said helps encourage outdoor activity and bolsters the club’s sagging membership.
“We’re looking for ideas on how to bring people back into the outdoors rather than sitting on the computer and on Facebook,” said the spokesperson,
a fifth-generation hunter who works in the agricultural sector. “Just because you’re out hunting doesn’t mean you want to kill something. It opens up the opportunity to see things you ordinarily wouldn’t get to see.”
Red squirrels are unprotected and categorized as “nuisance” animals by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and may be hunted at any time with no limit.
Gray, black and fox squirrels can be hunted in counties north of Westchester County between Sept. 1 and Feb. 28, according to state regulations.
The Squirrel Scramble team that brings in the “heaviest set” will receive a cash prize, with bonus weight awarded for black and red squirrels.
The Humane Association acknowledges the event is legal, but said “many if not most ethical hunters condemn these killing contests as unsportsmanlike.” The Humane
Society of the United States says squirrels aid tree repopulation by burying nuts.
The Germantown Sportsmen’s Association said it is instilling respect for the outdoors at an early age — youngsters will ultimately decide whether to continue with the sport and graduate to pursuing larger game like deer — as well as culling what they view as a vexing pest that eats crops and gets trapped in attics, resulting in calls to exterminators.
“In the lower half of the state, squirrels are at an overabundance,” said the spokesperson.
Rich Redman, an Adirondacks-based outdoors columnist, agreed red squirrels are troublesome.
“The red is more of a nuisance and the grays are what people hunt,” Redman said. “The grays are bigger and better eating than the reds.”
The Squirrel Scramble, which has generated scant attention in the past, has drawn spirited debate on the club’s Facebook page, where administrators appear to have deleted dozens of comments.
Among the few surviving comments on a pair of discussion threads was an inquiry as to whether the meat is consumed or donated.
Some people donate their harvests to wildlife rehabilitation centers, while others eat them, said the spokesperson, who pledged the event will continue, and all proceeds will be reinvested back into the organization.
“We would do this for free if we could.”