POV

Although I enjoyed the film and can understand their wanting to preserve their red squirrel, why do they have to eradicate the grey squirrel so inhumanely? They talk of shooting them while caged or beating them in bags?? If they want them gone and won't hunt them in nature where they have a chance to escape being killed, they should euthanize them.

by Melissa Barrick
August 23, 2009, 1:40 PM

I very much appreciate sensitivity towards animals and their welfare. This squirrel issue involves a difficult choice between two "evils": shooting a gray squirrel in the head or allowing a red squirrel to die slowly of disease in two weeks. I think it makes makes sense to try to eradicate the grays, and restore the previous balance. I'm not sure that a shot in the head is inhumane. I believe it is a very quick death, though unfortunate for the squirrel. If you argue that this is unacceptable, then you should also be up in arms at the thousands of cows and pigs which are shot in the head EVERY MINUTE to satisfy our appetite for meat.

by Rob
August 23, 2009, 11:11 PM

I was appalled at the seemingly pure enjoyment exhibited by the guy trapping and shooting the gray squirrel. The men eerily sounded obsessed by the eradication process. Interesting that the imperialism of the British and their accommpanying diseases eradicated so many lives of the natives in other countries throughout history. No wonder they can't think of a more humane way to deal with the overpopulation problem of this little gray squirrel. Have they investigated their problematic environmental issues that encourage the overpopulation of one species over another? No. It's just easier to blame the animal and not the human destruction of habitat and imbalance. This topic to me is outrageously hypocritical in many aspects. I found the depiction of the animal being tortured extremely disturbing--in a cage, in the dark with no food for 5 days was wrong. Guess humans are use to torturing the innocent.

by Mary
August 25, 2009, 11:54 PM

What, besides some sense of maintaining the "British Way" (which, ironically, is what brought the grays to the UK in the first place), is the point of this? Unless there's an important ecological difference between the species, it just seems rather silly and, frankly, distasteful, with tinges of a kind of racism/species-ism.

Not to mention you can't fight evolution. Best bet is to help the Reds along with a bit of genetic tinkering to give them greater resistance to the pox virus.

by Jim
September 3, 2009, 8:08 AM

Amazing!

I loved the squirrel running up the curtain! What an incredible film. I wish there were more like these on TV - subtle and cinematic, beautifully crafted ... and hilarious!

by April Simches from San Francisco , CAlifornia
September 8, 2009, 3:41 PM

Squirrels

Loved it!

by Maria Love from Miami, Florida
September 8, 2009, 3:43 PM

The "Crasher Squirrel"

Squirrel related for those of you who can't get enough. :)

CNN: Web goes nuts for 'Crasher Squirrel'

Melissa and Jackson Brandts knew right away that the photo from their recent trip to Canada was a good one... Read more »

by Theresa Riley from San Francisco, CA
September 9, 2009, 1:15 PM

Rights restrictions prevent me seeing the film, but here are some reactions to the reactions.
1) Fox hunting has not been outlawed in the UK. What has been outlawed is fox hunting with dogs. Foxes are now shot in greater number than before the legislation.
2) There is an ecological difference between red and gray squirrels, the gray being much more destructive, to young trees especially.
3) The British seem to me to have been remarkably tolerant of the gray takeover, which has been going on since the late nineteenth century. The culling of selective gray populations in the hope that their advance can be halted and that reds will then return to those areas has begun only in the last ten years or so.
4) It is worth noting that under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is against the law to release a gray squirrel, once trapped, back into the wild. It is also illegal to transport gray squirrels from one part of the country to another. I hope that this means that the red populations of the Isle of Wight, the last remaining red squirrel redoubt in the south of England, will continue to thrive. It should also help the program to eradicate grays and build up an exclusively red squirrel population on the Isle of Anglesey. I salute those who are working towards a red revival in the north of England, the home of Squirrel Nutkin, but they have a much more difficult and possibly never-ending task, given that reds and grays cannot co-exist.

by James Warburton
October 10, 2009, 11:06 AM

Great research potential!

This was a great, informative short film about the squirrels. Not only does it provide useful information but also lends itself easily to teaching. Teenage students will find the film engaging---humorous yet full of facts and opinions. The teacher librarian at a school could easily turn this into a collaborative effort with science or English teachers in presenting a pros and cons lesson. The library could lend more knowledge about squirrels or other animals in similar circumstances in other places around the world to extend the learning opportunity.

by RC from Garden Grove, California
November 11, 2009, 11:53 AM