Overheard on... NPR

“Researchers are experimenting with feeding squirrels birth control.”

Sign me up! Due to the mild winter and a bumper crop of nuts the squirrel population is exploding.  Researchers
could look no further than my backyard for evidence of this. I’ve got a family of squirrels that seems to be multiplying like crazy.

But what to do about them? I have joked with my husband that it could be good practice for my archery skills (though I don’t think I am quite good enough to hit one yet and I’m pretty sure animal control and PEETA from on
this). So birth control sounds like a more reasonable approach.

Still, as one person commented on the NPR transcript… since we can’t even figure out whether birth control is morally ok for humans, should we be giving it to squirrels? A new gallup pole has found, in fact, that social issues like birth control and abortion are top issues during this election for women in swing states.  So birth control for rodents might be walking a fine line. 
 
On the precedence side I’m pretty sure we do already spray fruit flies to keep them from propagating. Is it that big of a leap to go to squirrels? And then, if not…. There are quite a few countries I have heard of where wild cats and dogs are a huge nuisance.  Take, for example, this article in the NY Times: 

You wouldn’t want to stop this dog from having a little litter of puppies, would you?

Apparently India also has a problem with nuisance monkeys. And, you’ll see from this article they are taking procreation out of the monkey’s hands:Metro News:nuisance-monkeys-captured-and-neutered-in-india

So, where does this leave us with the squirrels? Perhaps if we gave them a choice they would appreciate the birth control option. After all, the mommy and daddy squirrel in my backyard can’t be too happy that there are now
three little extra squirrels competing for our BBQ scraps and my dog’s attention.