The comments were. . . very youtubeish. It was entertaining for the moment. Listening to MC Hammer made me wish I was in the 90's where cartoony sound effects would be thrown into the video so I could pretend I was watching America's funniest home videos.

The view from further away is somehow far more hilarious to me.

If I felt comfortable that I wasn't hurting them with my device, I'd build one. It's fascinating how they use their tail as a rudder.

That is ****ing hilarious. Makes me want to show it to every girl I know who would cry about the "poor things".

Do you think it's killing them? Or are they light enough to where it's like dropping a bug...

He let it loose a few times hitting them directly in the neck. I dont think they survive that.

When I was a young lad growing up, my parents would leave nuts out for squirrels on our back porch. At some point my boredom led me to develop a sport which I called 'squirrel fishing'. It's not cruel, I didnt use hooks or anything. I would simply tie a peanut on some fishing line, put it in the pile with the rest of the nuts, back off about 30ft and sit there watching with my fishing rod. When a squirrel picked up my bait, I would flip the bail and provide resistance. Awesomely, they dont simply let go like you would expect but give you a little fight. I wish I had videotaped some of this stuff. After a while the squirrels get wise to this trick, and spot the line before picking up the nut and chew through it. But my best 'squirrel fishing' story involves a Bluejay. While waiting for a squirrel to return, a blujay swooped down and picked up my bait nut. It started to fly off, got about 30 feet into the air, and then I flipped the bail. When the line went tight it either scared the blujay or messed up its flight posture because it tumbled/paniced for about 10ft straight down before recovering its flight.

Good times.

This is how squirrels get on islands.

In other news, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Yeah, I mean... seriously, that has to be hurting some of them. If you're going to kill them, kill them outright, don't make them suffer over it. I doubt the flying is hurting them too much, it's the sudden acceleration/being hit in the neck/etc that's hurting.

This is the sort of thing that ******* do.

You, sir, deserve a metal!

A HEAVY METAL

Off topic, but this reminds me of a time I was out on the San Francisco Bay on one of those pay fishing trips where you get a spot on the side of a big boat with like 30 other people and the crew provides live bait and assistance if you bring a fish in. I hook my anchovie on my hook and before I could lower it into the water a seagull fly by and snatched it right out of the air and started flying off. It didn't get far but when the line tightened up he did give me a pretty decent jerk and acted quite surprised. I would have reeled him in but he dropped it and flew off.

Good times.

I'd like to make a trap like that but for humans that do it to animals.

Yes, but what about squirrls?

...are you all vegetarians?

Are you implying that these people track down and eat the squirrels that they abuse and cripple?

No, I just find it odd that so many people give a **** about the squirrels.

I find it odd people don't. Look, if you're going to kill to eat animals, that's one thing. Survival/food chain. But torturing animals? I think that's a little pathetic.

And cruel.

You know, I personally would never hurt something for fun, but I have a hard time understanding the moral outrage over throwing a tree rat a dozen yards. It's a tree rat. May I ask what your dividing line of compassion is? Is this the same or less outrageous than hurting, say....a dog? A Horse? Is it size related? What about a fish? A crab? A spider? Flies? Where is the dividing line at which point harming something for fun, or because it's annoying, or for some sort of gain of money or food or what have you, becomes wrong?

Edit: I don't mean this in an accusatory manner, I'm just interested to hear peoples' personal limits. I went deer hunting for the first time last week, and I killed a doe (butchered her myself, too, successfully, if a little inefficiently and without professional quality results. learned a lot though). For me, killing something to eat it, even if you don't NEED the food desperately, is fine. I know people who will kill things for being annoying or disruptive, or a nuisance. I can't do that. Most young people I meet these days act like they think harming anything at all is wrong....but they'll smash the hell out of any kind of bug. It's just interesting to me.

There are cute, adorable baby kittens starving painfully to death as we speak.

Nature's tough, deal with it.

I personally don't see what anyone would have against squirrels unless they're grey squirrels killing off native british red squirrels. That said, I'm not a fan of anyone hurting creatures that don't have exoskeletons.

So, invertebrates don't count? You'd throw or smash a lobster without thinking twice? How much gain do you have to get from something for it to be worth harming?

Insects and sea-insects are fair game for me.

I don't think that there's anything I'd want to gain from harming an animal.

Does this include Republicans?

What about food? If you eat meat, you harm animals. You just don't look them in the eye when you do it.

Maybe you don't. I, on the other hand, don't eat anything I haven't personally stared down into submission.

-I don't have it cooked, either, or even slaughtered. I just stare it down, tear off the chunks I like, and have the animal buried alive. In New Jersey.

I think taking it to New Jersey is cruel.

There's starving children too.

What does that have to do with being intentionally cruel to animals? (hint: nothing) Just because nature's tough doesn't mean we need to make it tougher.

I have nothing against people slaughtering animals, I just don't want to do it personally.

People are animals too.

Every time I read this thread title I sing the entire song in my head.

Really, Kirby? I can't imagine why.

My cousin had that song played as she and her husband arrived at their wedding reception

You guys make me lol