In Moscow, police are stepping up patrols of city parks, hoping to catch a new breed of criminal in the act: squirrel trappers. Keeping squirrels as pets is a popular new fad in winter-weary Moscow where folks who find these furry rodents charming are enticing park squirrels into homemade traps and taking them home. The practice is illegal and subject to heavy fines but squirrel fans have not been deterred. Demand for pet squirrels has become so great that local “entrepreneurs” are trapping park squirrels and reselling them for as much as $144.
Exotic Pets
There was a time when America had a similar love affair with squirrels. Squirrels were not uncommon pets in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Some people still keep the small rodents as pets; and certain squirrel species are allowed as exotic pets in some states. There’s a Squirrel Lovers Club on the internet with tips for keeping pet squirrels; but you’ll also find numerous veterinarian and animal rights groups actively opposed to caging of these wild animals as pets on humanitarian and human safety grounds.
A Top NJ Wildlife Pest
Whether you enjoy watching these aerobatic animals scampering around your Monmouth County backyard or feel you blood pressure spike when these crafty thieves find a new way to steal the seed in your birdfeeder, Eastern gray squirrels are one New Jersey’s top wildlife pests. Squirrels nesting in Ocean County attics carry parasites and disease, foul insulation, gnaw stored treasures and pose a fire threat should they gnaw through electrical wires.
These clever animals can be difficult to trap and dangerous to remove. If squirrels invade your home, call the NJ animal control experts at Allison Pest Control for safe, humane squirrel removal.