Sprinkled. Scathing Online Schoolmarm says this is interesting writing. Not sure I would have chosen sprinkled.
Fairy dust is sprinkled. Refreshing spring rains are sprinkled. Little dead squirrel bodies are… what? Lying around campus? Popping up around campus?… Nah…
But anyway. San Jose State University has a problem:
In the past, San Jose State University had a humane way to deal with pesky squirrels—they trapped and released them, according to Pat Lopes Harris, SJSU’s director of media relations. However, budget cuts recently forced the school to turn to more lethal methods when they no longer had the staff to check the traps. The result? Corpses strewn around the campus. [Strewn is just right. Did the writer use sprinkle because she’d already used strewn?] That practice is about to come to an end. After years of routinely poisoning their population of bushy-tailed tree- and burrow-dwellers, the school administration is reportedly “looking into” humane alternatives to industrial strength rat poison as a form of squirrel population control. The campus has had a rampant ground-squirrel infestation for years now, with the little guys chewing away at landscaping and upturning lawns and building foundations. Since the grounds crew began baiting their fluffy nemeses in 2007 [Fluffy nemeses is wild.], it has become a common sight to see little dead squirrel bodies sprinkled around campus in the morning. According to the Spartan Daily, the SJSU student newspaper, the choice method of termination is currently anticoagulants, which “essentially cause the animal victim to bleed to death throughout a period of a few days to a week.” Dead or dying rodents flailing on the ground then become prey for predators like falcons and hawks, which in turn get poisoned.
In the immortal words of UD‘s own fluffy nemesis, La Kid: Yuck.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:37PM
Some mop the floors at San Jose,
But I poison squirrels for pay.
Falling from the trees
Are my fluffy nemeses.
I’ve resigned from ASPCA.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:15PM
Where is PETA when we really need them…
October 13th, 2009 at 10:54PM
Uhm, ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) aren’t "fluffy". Not the body coat, and not the tail fur, either. The writer may be mixing up S. beecheyi (which are native) with the two Eastern tree squirrel species (Sciurus niger and S. carolinensis), which were introduced.
Ground squirrel populations are reservoirs of bubonic plague, and may also harbor rabies and other tranmissible-to-humans diseases.
Where there are sufficient populations of predators (snakes, raccoons, coyotes and raptors) the S. beecheyi populations are held in balance. On an urban campus like SJSU, no such luck.
Personally I’ve seen cats and raptors capture and eat the tree squirrels as well.
The tree squirrels are also a nuisance, pillaging fruits and vegetables (they’ve stripped my neighbor’s pomegranite tree) and digging in the ground.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:55PM
I forgot to say, I’ve lived and gardened in the same county as SJSU for the last 40 years.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:52AM
Is the campus really urban? A couple of guys imported from the rural South and equipped with varmint rifles could do the job, while adding diversity to the campus as well. Just think of the possibilities: California cuisine encounters genuine burgoo!
October 14th, 2009 at 11:06AM
Please visit http://www.rodenator.com to see a humane, enviromentally friendly alternative to poisoning the ground squirrels.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:12PM
Now we know what Bill Murray was up to after finishing Caddyshack.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:39PM
It takes them a few days to a week to die? That seems very cruel.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:25AM
In Brooklyn, we call ’em "tree rats."