By Nazlia Peer
Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, cute and adorable, for many Capetonians grey squirrels are part of the city's charm and treating them to peanuts in the Company's Garden is a simple pleasure at lunch-time.
But take one home for a pricey R1 500 from pet dealer Exquisite Pets and you are heading for domestic disaster.
This is the advice of veterinary nurses and squirrel rescuers Dee Hazell and Chandré Hunt who work for free to rehabilitate sick, injured and abandoned squirrels and return them to nature.
Alarm bells sounded for Hazell and Hunt when they noticed the animals advertised for sale in the local press during the squirrel breeding season in November.
Squirrels breed twice a year, the second time in February. Exquisite Pets has been the focus of several articles by the Argus Action consumer column about clients who have been unhappy with the service from the owners, Boksburg couple Natalie and Quintin Human.
The clients, who all paid cash for pedigreed puppies weeks before they were air-freighted to Cape Town, said they took delivery of sick and cross-bred animals.
Hazell said that after nine years of caring for hundreds of squirrels, she knew how ill-suited they were to domesticity.
"The babies are lovely and cuddly, but when they get to about five or six months they turn nasty," she said, showing long, red scratches on her arms.
This was when they became sexually mature, and they became territorial and aggressive to people other than their owners.
"They can attack family members, and even though the risk of rabies is non-existent, the bite can become infected. They can also pass ringworm on to children," said Hazell.
She and Hunt were also concerned that frustrated owners could dump troublesome squirrels, risking the lives of animals incapable of fending for themselves. On Saturday Hunt released four abandoned babies she had nursed for two months.
"They are definitely better off in nature, they don't stay tame for long and they go through a lot of stress in captivity. On release even hand-reared squirrels head straight for the trees."
Despite the scratches and the cost of replacing cupboard doors, skirtings and wiring in the squirrels' room, she remains committed.
"Watching these animals spin, squeal and play up a tree 10 metres high makes it all so worthwhile in the end."
When the Cape Argus called Exquisite Pets, Human offered five-week-old squirrels for R1 500 each.
Hers was a different story: "They are very easy to look after. They can't die easily, they eat baby food, baby cereal and milk and they can be house-trained. And they'll never run away."
She even offered the details of a Cape Town woman she said made special squirrel nappies. Asked if they would attack or become destructive, she said: "No, not at all, it depends on the way they are brought up. None of mine bite."
Beverley Pervan, an animal welfare worker and head of the Kalahari Raptor Centre, which rehabilitates birds of prey and small mammals, said: "They are fine while they are babies, but when their instincts kick in, no amount of training will tame their wildness.
"I've had so-called tame squirrels rip my hands open."
Indigenous to North America, where populations have swelled to pest proportions, grey squirrels have no legal protection in South Africa.
They were introduced to the Cape over 100 years ago.
Exquisite Pets does not require a licence to sell them.
Shaun Bodington, chief inspector SPCA in the Western Cape, said there were no legal constraints on the selling of squirrels, but they were not pets and should not be treated as such.
"We object to this trade on ethical grounds. Squirrels can be tamed but not domesticated, and when they reach sexual maturity they exhibit unpredictable and temperamental behaviour.
"They can become aggressive, which often results in neglect from owners. A mature squirrel can inflict serious injury on an owner.
"We would try to persuade people not to bring these animals into their homes. They're not pets."