An American in Britain

When Walker’s decided to create new flavours for its crisps, one of the popular ones was Cajun Squirrel.  I never tasted it, and I don’t know which one Walker’s will decide to eventually add to its line, but I just thought Cajun Squirrel was a silly joke.  Apparently, this is not the case.

The campaign to reintroduce and protect the red squirrel has been so successful in the north, that the man behind the campaign is moving south to do the job.  He has reported that the gray squirrels are a delicacy and have been in great demand at butcher’s and restaurants.  (I wonder if Walker’s has been putting in orders.)  In the US, we called them “road kill”, but here, the squirrels are trapped.

It doesn’t sound very fair to the grays, and I do wonder if there’s a difference in the taste between the grays and the reds.  And what about the blacks?  They’re still quite rare over here.  I hope they don’t end up killing all the grays.  In the US, we had the full range of colours.  We even had bi-racial squirrels running around our yard – red fur covering half the way, black the rest, and various other combinations.  I hope this doesn’t become a one-squirrel country.

Several of my colleagues have blogged about rats.  We had a mice problem, not a rat, thankfully, but I was reading an article about rat infestations today and it made me cringe.  You think immigration is bad.  What about the rat population?

The article stated that the rat problem is worsening in England due to many factors, such as, population growth, litter, bird feeding, compost heaps, poison resistance and mild winters.  There was a rat infestation in North Yorkshire, but they say it is now under control.  Pest control argued that we need stronger poison.  The rats have become resistant to the current sublethal dose of anticoagulants used as poison in those grain baits.  We have created “super-rat”, like those “super-bugs” that are resistant to antibiotics.

I was not aware that rats can produce every 6 weeks, with a litter of 6-8 babies.  Yuck!!  We had hamsters and that was bad enough.  I don’t even want to imagine rats.  Not only are rats a pain in the butt, but they do carry and spread disease, which is the worst part.

Several people commented, with a few in defense of rats.  Uugh!  Anyhow, one person commented that she tried a method recommended by PETA that kept rats away.  It was a mixture of cayenne pepper, horseradish, garlic and salad oil. You let it steep, then spray it around bins, etc.  It may work to keep rats away, but that only makes your problem someone else’s problem, as another pointed out.  In order to control the rat infestation, you need to kill them.  I agree with this.  Some people might be squeamish to use baits.  I’m sorry if I offend any animal rights activists, but I say kill them in whatever way that works.  These are pests, not household pets.

It’s all over the headlines.  You can’t turn around anywhere without hearing about the swine flu epidemic.  Will it turn pandemic, do you think?  The number of suspected as well as confirmed cases have risen.  How scared are you that it will become a serious crisis?

Some people were speculating that the swine flu is really just another “wag the dog” to get us off the topic of the economy and global recession.  However, the swine flu is worsening the recession by hurting the travel industry.

Maybe I’m a little complacent about this epidemic right now because of my location.  We live out in the villages, away from densely-populated city centers, so the risk is rather low.  No one around us has been on holiday in Mexico and if they had, we hardly come into contact with anyone except through school and the gym.  Am I reasonable or is this just a false sense of security?

I’d like to know how my colleagues out there feel about this epidemic.