Responses to "Bloodshed"

I have received a phone call and eight emails about today's "Bloodshed" post. The phone call said the recipients enjoyed the writing. They included the prediction that someone would call me a serial killer.

The emails said:
Bill…the answer is to get more cats….helps the litter business out.
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I had to chuckle about this post. We, too, have critters running around our yard. Recently, we discovered trails into the grass coming from under the juniper bushes. A little research on Google told us we had a vole. There are no specific traps for voles - - - only for rats, mice, moles, and other rodents. But I did find out that voles can be caught with my trusty and well-used gopher trap purchased at Frank's Hardware for about $7.00 several years ago. It is safer for ME to use than a mouse trap and just as deadly, most of the time.

I loaded the trap with a mixture of peanut butter and oatmeal (per directions on Google) and set the trap perpendicular in the line of the trail. Within an hour, I caught the varmint. Since the information about voles indicated there would likely be more than one in the area, I reset the trap and the next day, found a gopher who had succumbed to the concoction. Next day, same thing!

My trapping total this summer includes: 1 vole and 7 gopher/chipmunks (I can't tell them apart)! I also caught a sparrow but it was still alive when I released it and, after taking a while to get over what must have been shock and perhaps a sore neck, it flew away.
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Good for you. Those little critters can wreck a garden. You know someone is going to say that you don’t have a heart for killing those little critters.
I do enjoy your writings. Keep up the good work.
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I feel a little less of a mass murderer knowing that you too have taken a stand as king of your yard. Our particular enemy are the chipmunks. Last year, we determined to be persistent and re-bait our quick death traps particularly since we decided to keep a kill count (our little Vietnam). By the end of last summer we had recorded 138. Funny, we have not seen any this season.....
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I find the killings and the "amusing" responses sad and difficult.
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Does this one bother you? Surprise you??
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;-) Serial killer is a hoot! I am totally on board with no animals in the house, but my Gandhi side leaves them alone in the yard;-)
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I agree, we don't want any in our yard either. But I also couldn't ever kill one. We bought a trap this year and in the first two weeks we've had it we have relocated 3 chipmunks. We drive them out across the bridge and let them go somewhere we think they can be happy, plus I'm pretty certain they won't find their way back across the bridge to our yard
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That was inevitable. There is a PETAesque element sprinkled throughout society that has made animal worship a religion.
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Well, somebody has to say something from the other side--and I guess it will have to be me. I know that all those little critters can be destructive and annoying. My heart sinks when I see a groundhog near my garden (and of course, some groundhogs are rather big critters.) I can offer no solution at all, apart from taking them far into the country and releasing them and I know that any nearby farmers might be annoyed--and not hesitate to shoot them themselves. Also, maybe the critters themselves will be so disoriented they won't survive, although they seem to me like a tough lot.

Nonetheless, I can't see killing animals like that--unless they are dangerous or in some way presenting more than an annoyance. It seems to me that they have as much right to be here as we do and that they want to live too. Think of the ingenuity and persistence of the squirrel trying to negotiate a squirrel-proof bird-feeder. I have to admire it!

You may remember that my seeing a lobster being dropped into the pot in 1978 turned me into a strict vegetarian for 12 years. If so, my reaction to the critter-killing is probably to be expected. I still feel strange about eating meat, and actually eat pretty little although I'm not a purist about this. In fact, I think that killing a squirrel (or a deer or a fish) to eat is different--although if I had to do that, I would probably become a strict vegetarian again.

So, all I can say is "I don't like that." I have no solutions or arguments. (I realize that this is kind of like the Republican stand on healthcare proposals.) Anyway, reading about killing animals makes me feel sad.
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Wow. I'm sure with this 5th response. My stomach churned all day. What terrible thing have these tiny creatures done to you
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Since you just had this blog post about traping animals I had to share our adventure from tonight with you. I was sitting upstairs at the computer, and I heard something out in the trap. My husband went down to check it and thought he saw a black squirrel, but he got a flash light to check it before he put it in the car. We were glad he did, because it turned out to be a skunk! We flipped up the levers holding the door down and it left on it's own.
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Since you just had this blog post about traping animals I had to share our adventure from tonight with you. I was sitting upstairs at the computer, and I heard something out in the trap. Justin went down to check it and thought he saw a black squirrel, but he got a flash light to check it before he put it in the car. We were glad he did, because it turned out to be a skunk! We flipped up the levers holding the door down and it left on it's own.
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I think it might partly depend on context for how one feels about this. I feel strongly against killing any outdoor creature as they have as much right to be there as us, and it is not their fault we built our home there. So, my initial reaction to your post was one of 'Oh my goodness - people really do that?!?' However, as I thought about this today, my context is living in a rural area. I have never lived in a suburb or urban setting in which one is trying to maintain a presentable lawn for themselves and their neighbors. I don't know what kind of social or other pressure one may feel to dispose of said creatures as they are ruining our beautiful (human defined) yard. As a rural resident, I have many creatures that interfere with what I want to do on my property: A fox eats the chickens, the deer eat my garden, the squirrels and chipmunks eat my birdfeed, the chipmunks sleep in my care engine, etc. My solution is to either use barriers to prevent the creatures from accessing what I don;t want them to....or provide enough for both of us. I LOVE watching squirrels, so a put out feeders for them as well. I also feed the chipmunks outside my bedroom window to wake to each morning. Deer love pumpkins and strawberries, so I plant some outside of the fenced garden for them. Rodale's gardening books provide many natural strategies for keeping critters out of the way without resorting to killing them.

HOwever...my rules do change when inside the house. Once it gets cold out, I have mice that find my home more comfortable than their natural homeland. They urinate and deficate in my home, eat electrical wires and other such problematic behavior. they also reproduce very rapidly. I try to reason with them to leave my home, but it does not work. So...I do trap the cute little things and drown them. Spiders are allowed permanent residence in the home and any other creature is carefully carried outside. This does upset my family as I move bees back outside as well even though I am allergic to them. I have gotten quite good at trapping a bee with a cup and sliding a piece of paper underneath to take it outside. I have tried to find a more humane way with the mice..but not yet. There is a device on the market that makes a high pitch that humans cannot hear, but drives mice crazy. However, it only works in mild climates, as it gets so cold in the north, the mice would rather put up with the noise than freeze.

So.... there is my 50 cents.
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Thanks for getting back to me on my comment on chipmunk removal. I think that it is man's nature to hunt, basic to feeding the species, but in the evolution of time that instinct should have evolved into hunting for the right job, the right environment, the providing of food through other matters.

I realize there is overpopulation of many species, including deer, and the throng must be thinned in some manner. After all, I am a realist. As far as garden damage by the little creatures, there are many ways to head them off by special plants, scents, and deterrents found in garden magazines.

All life is precious and perhaps I am more attuned than need be as it is such a struggle to maintain life for my husband and me.

We are off to the hospital this morning, hopefully to easily correct an non raining urinary catheter, but in his vulnerable state, small things so easily escalate to larger problems.

Thanks for listening to my perspective.
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Thanks! You can kill all the chipmunks and I wouldn’t care. They carefully demolished our beautiful crop of beets. I am mad at those little critters.

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