City Explores Squirrel Options to Burrow Out of Dilemma

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

January 18 -- Either trap them, kill them and feed them to raptors, or sterilize and cut off their food source. These are the two options City officials are exploring to more humanly control a burgeoning ground squirrel population in Palisades Park.

Under a county health directive, Santa Monica City officials in early 2006 were ordered to once again decimate the burrowing squirrel population in the popular park overlooking the Pacific to prevent plague outbreak and other diseases.

The squirrel's burrows -- some measuring hundreds of feet long -- also lead to a weakening of the cliff bluffs, endangering motorists below on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), City planners said.

While the action may not require City Council approval, City officials say it is important to find an alternative to the poison pellet bait stations County Health workers had been setting for years and which animal activists say leads to a slow and painful death.

“Everyone on the council is an animal lover,” said Mayor Bob Holbrook, who said he has received dozens of letters, emails and phone calls from concerned residents.

Kevin McKeown, the council’s most outspoken proponent of changing the current poisoning policy, said the options are a step forward.

"My sense is that the community on the whole doesn't want to see us unnecessarily killing wildlife in our parks, and some people have been truly appalled by it, as I have been," he said.

Finding an alternative –- which could combine both options –- would help City officials dig their way out of a dilemma that pits County Health officials, who are set to begin another round of poisonings, and animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

McKeown would not endorse either option yet, but said City officials should decide quickly.

"I've been hoping to get a delay, and getting a viable alternative to the killing," he said. "I'm asking staff to resist what the county wants as much as possible."

After sending out requests for proposals to both animal rights groups and pest control companies, City staff has narrowed the options to two contenders: Heritage Wildlife Management and the Animal Advocates.

Yet neither option may be particularly appealing for the ground squirrels.

Under the Heritage Wildlife Management plan, squirrels would be trapped during a six-week period, taken to another location, killed and used as bird feed for raptors in rehabilitation programs.

The Animal Advocates plan would "focus on eliminating unnatural food sources for the ground squirrels in the park through community outreach and education," according to the staff report. They also call for the treatment of squirrels for fleas and, possibly, for the sterilization of the rodents.

While both alternatives involve tampering with the squirrels' habitat to lower their populations unnaturally, PETA -- whose activists delivered a sternly worded message to City officials for their current policy on squirrel eradication -- said they backed the Animal Advocates proposal over using the squirrels as bird food.

"We definitely support the Animal Advocates solution when considering the alternatives," said PETA Wildlife Biologist Stephanie Boyles. "You have to remember, whatever they decide, that you need both a long-term and short-term solution."

Using either poison or trapping and killing the squirrels will not adequately keep the populations down, said Boyles.

"After a massacre, the squirrel's will reproduce at an accelerated rate," she said. "The population always rebounds, unless you do something to control their food source and reproduction."

Further, she said, trapping can be an arduous task with questionable results.

"PETA praises the City of Santa Monica for exploring alternatives to the cruel poison treatment that has been used for some time now,” she said. “For that we can thank them.”

As far as the effectiveness of sterilizing the squirrels and launching a public information campaign to stop the feeding of the squirrels intentionally or unintentionally -- which County health experts say helps lead to the ballooning of the population -- Boyles said the City cannot lose.

"They've tried poisoning, and it hasn't worked,” she said. “It's now time to try something different."

Outreach efforts under the Animal Advocates alternative would involve representatives going to the park, passing out flyers and telling people the importance of not feeding the ground squirrels -- which live underground, not in trees. They would also try to discourage the feeding of ferral cats, another food source for the squirrels.

In addition to cutting back their food supply, Animal Advocates may use "immunocontraceptives" -- which are not commercially available -- on a trail basis to slow the reproduction rate, according to the report.

The contraceptive works by adding a cholesterol-lowering drug to the squirrel feed and "do not pose a danger to the to non-target wildlife or humans," states the report.