Is That a Squirrel in Your Pant Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

Big hat tip to my boss at the Burlington Free Press who last week took note of this Oregon, um tragedy.

Seems somebody did a poor job of animal control.

A menace to pant legs everywhere

According to the Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal, a local man learned that gunfire isn't always the best way to deal with the dilemna of having a squirrel run up your pant leg.

No, I have no idea why the squirrel ran up the guy's pant leg,

To give the guy some credit, I realize that a squirrel in your pant leg is not a common problem, and there's not many how-to advice books on ways to deal with the situation. Still, the man's response will not him any pest control industry awards.

He apparently thought the best way to rid himself of the squirrel menace was to shoot it with a .22 rifle. The good news is the squirrel survived to torment another Oregon resident another day. The bad news is the man shot himself in the foot, so he required hospital treatrment.

Now that we know squirrels up the pant leg are a serious threat, we need to think about ways to combat the problem in ways that leave the squirrel victims more or less intact. Maybe if the pepper spray cop from UC Davis loses his job, we can hire him to pepper spray squirrels.