New York State DEC’s Big Squirrel Warning

This is one of those stories when you first hear and wonder what the heck is going on. The New York State DEC has asked people to stop doing this to all of the squirrels in New York State!

There was one case where squirrels kept coming into a man's yard and bothering his dog. So, in order to tell if they were the same squirrels over and over again, the man trapped them and then spray painted the squirrels.

The man was issued a ticket, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on social media. Over the years, people tend to have a problem with a squirrel whether it is really minor or major like getting into their homes or attics or digging through landscaping. But, can you shoot squirrels legally in New York State? The answer is yes. Most squirrel types are unprotected in New York State.

• "Air guns may be used to hunt squirrels, rabbits, hares, ruffed grouse, and furbearers that may be hunted (e.g., raccoons and coyotes) and unprotected species. Air guns may not be used to hunt waterfowl, pheasant, wild turkey, or big game", according to the Small Game Hunting portion of the DEC site.

There are a ton of different type of squirrels that are in New York State, according to the DEC website:

Squirrels come in a wide variety of colors. In fact, as a whole, this group of animals is prone to producing color variants of the more typical color patterns for that species. For example, in New York, gray squirrels can be black-furred, albino, or many different variations of gray mixed with yellow-to-reddish brown. Many squirrel species have light spots on the back of their ears.