The Squirrel Problem Is Tough Nut to Crack

One ground squirrel is cute. Two or three, chipper and eager to please, are charming.

But squirrels in numbers of 50 or more, all hyperkinetic and hungry, start to look like a made-for-television movie. Overpopulation is not pretty when it turns our furry friends into flea-bearing, buck-toothed panhandlers.

So the state Department of Parks and Recreation decided to thin the squirrel herd along the beach areas in Carlsbad. It’s been done before--by placing poison grain inside small lengths of plastic pipe left in known squirrel haunts.

“The squirrels had gotten very aggressive because they were used to handouts,” said Bill Fait, district superintendent for the department. “It was not unusual to see 50 to 60 squirrels in a small area begging.”

The eradication was under way when San Diego Animal Advocates entered the picture. The group finds poisoning hideous and instead received permission to trap the squirrels and relocate them to an undisclosed haven in North County.

Enter the California Department of Fish and Game.

It said trapping and relocating is illegal because the ground squirrel is on the official list of nuisance species. And it also said poisoning is illegal because of the danger that “non-target” animals might be hit.

When the interdepartmental dust settled, the squirrel population was down sharply (some relocated, some poisoned), and a sign was put up asking people not to feed the survivors.

The controversy is now officially on hold--until the next population cycle peaks.

Fait said Park and Rec strongly disagrees with Fish and Game over poisoning. He notes that Fish and Game has no authority over Park and Rec.

San Diego Animal Advocates is looking for alternatives.

“We can’t relocate them and they can’t poison them,” said associate director Jane Cartmill. “We’re at an impasse.”

A student studying wildlife management at UC San Diego is looking to mix a birth control solution with the grain, rather than poison.

Another idea, one used on beavers in Northern California, would be for veterinarians to provide free spaying and neutering for squirrels. It may not be practical, however.

“I think we might have trouble finding veterinarians to volunteer,” Cartmill said.

One for the Money . . .

Take a handful, they’re small:

* Muir Training Technologies Inc., which runs computer training schools in San Diego and San Marcos, has filed for bankruptcy.

Business reporters used to wonder why the company was called Muir since no one named Muir worked there. The answer from the operators was that M-U-I-R stood for Make Us Incredibly Rich.

Apparently not.

* Smart political money, with access to polling, is predicting a primary win for Councilwomen McColl and McCarty but a November runoff for council members Struiksma and Wolfsheimer.

* Come back to the library, Huck honey.

National Banned Books Week 1989 is being observed at the downtown public library with a display of books that have been banned somewhere: “Satanic Verses,” “Huckleberry Finn,” Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” and the ever-divisive “Garfield: His Nine Lives.”

“Garfield” was too salty for Saginaw, Mich., and “The Giving Tree” catches hell as sexist.

Bring on the Trial

Bumper stickers saying “San Diego Deserves a Silberman Trial” have started to appear on newspaper racks and trash cans, both downtown and in La Jolla.

They’re the handiwork of David Thompson, who is displeased with Silberman’s wife, Supervisor Susan Golding, over the issues of public funding for the prevention of drug abuse and child abuse.

He is also passing a petition demanding that Silberman stand trial. He’s threatening to picket the federal courthouse when Silberman makes his next appearance.

“Rich people like that always escape, and I want to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Thompson said.