neighbour sabotaging my crops!!

[FB.]

If the neighbour is throwing things (e.g. monkey nuts) onto your land, is that not the same as throwing litter into someone else's garden?
If you can catch them on camera.......

...... it would be quite funny to see them get "community service" picking up litter.

[bluemoon]

I would have thought that anything thrown onto your land and not wanted by you whether it's monkey nuts or crisp packets counts as littering, if it's done deliberately to annoy you it sounds like ASBO time.

[Sprocket*]

The offence of littering is not made out when it is private to private, if she was throwing it into a public area then it would!. In terms of the air rifle then you can shoot them within your own garden, but cannot shoot across anyone elses garden (umm, tempting)...
ASBO - diary of evidence, diary of evidence - not matter how trivial and make sure you ring the loca police.
Have you thought of conacting the council pest control - they were a star when our neighbour had us over run with rats because she was too lazy to put the rubbish out and left it on the patio (aggghhh!!!!). I don't know what they can do about grey rats with big tails but it may be worth a try!

[ckfe]

Just seen BBC news this morning about a couple who also suffered abuse and harrassment. They installed CCTV cameras, their neighbours from hell now have a criminal conviction Can you install CCTV - I think Argos sells them.

installed the cctv yesterday, just got to get a video recorder now .. we got rid of ours thinking we'd never use it again!!.. i'm sure good old freecycle will come to the rescue

[shoreham_steve]

I agree that this could be interpreted as a hate crime and as such should be dealt with by the police. Mind you, the knotweed and the hitman sound like pretty good alternatives to me !!
In the meantime, is there a corner of your garden, away from the veg, where you could feed the squirrels to entice them away from your neighbour's lobbed offerings?
At least then we'll know you're not just being squirrelphobic !!
I wish you luck in sorting it out.

[MrToggs]

Ive been reading this thread with great interest as its been developing
I used to be a pest control operative for a company based in Caerphilly and I hold BPCA Dipolma parts 1 and 2 so I have a fair amount of knowledge on culling of squirrels
It is actually an offence to release a grey squirrel back into the wild after capture they should be destroyed as it is classed as a non native species.

The grey squirrel was introduced to uk in the mid-19th century from America being much bigger and stronger than our native species it decimated our red squirrel population.

Im not sure where you would stand with the RSPCA for shooting or trapping as all pest control companys hold licences to carry out its activitys in the field.
I would check first before you kill any animal where you stand better safe than sorry as you dont want the fire arms police raiding you or end up being proscuted for animal cruelty.
I had a very scary experience with the fire arms police once whilst on a job culling pigeons at a train station,turns out it was lack of cominucation between the transport police and local police as we already had already been granted a permit from the transport police to carry out the work.
I know you can shoot rabbits on farmers land with the land owners permission again im not sure if you can with squirrels

In regards to air rifles and air pistol the legal limits are 12lbs air rifle and 7lbs for air pistol if your air guns exceed this limit you will need a fire arms licence as they become classed as a fire arm.

As for eating them they taste yummy nice bbq'ed or cooked on a open fire

[MrToggs]

I forgot to mention in my last post you can poison them but your only allowed to used specially designed hoppers as not to effect non target species and your only allowed to use warfarin
see link Grey Squirrel Control: Actively promoting the humane culling of grey squirrels

[Incy]

Interesting info MrToggs. Are there companies out there that can be employed to come and cull them then?

[Hilary B]

I agree that this could be interpreted as a hate crime and as such should be dealt with by the police. Mind you, the knotweed and the hitman sound like pretty good alternatives to me !!
In the meantime, is there a corner of your garden, away from the veg, where you could feed the squirrels to entice them away from your neighbour's lobbed offerings?
At least then we'll know you're not just being squirrelphobic !!
I wish you luck in sorting it out.

While I have every sympathy with anyone getting grief from an unreasonable neighbour (or anyone else), this 'hate crimes' thing annoys me. If someone's behaviour is unacceptable, what difference does it make WHY they do it?????

[Solitaire]

I'm so sorry you are the victim of bad neighbours, many years ago I had trouble with one of mine over my dogs, I was accussed of all sorts of things, luckily the council officer saw through the lies as a lot of other neighbours supported me, but I nearly had a breakdown over it all.

As far as I could work out the problems started after the neighbours had been burguled and my dogs never made a noise, bit strange as one of their complaints was that my dogs barked all the time .

As said keep a dairy and take photos everytime an inccident happens.

Ann

[shoreham_steve]

While I have every sympathy with anyone getting grief from an unreasonable neighbour (or anyone else), this 'hate crimes' thing annoys me. If someone's behaviour is unacceptable, what difference does it make WHY they do it?????

The difference is one of law - my understanding is that the relatively new label of 'hate crime' makes the offence one grade higher than simply behaving unacceptably and as such it should not be treated by the police as a purely minor offence.

[Mac]

Hi, I would definately recommend contacting your Police forces' LGBT Liaison officer. I know a lot of people don't have much faith in the Police, but in certain circumstances you just have to put your faith in them and hope they come good. Killing squirrels, or puting up defences around your crops isn't really stopping the probelm. If it is one of homophobia then this is what has to be addressed, as it can get really serious, really quickly.

Here endeth the grown up, boring bit.......

[Hilary B]

The difference is one of law - my understanding is that the relatively new label of 'hate crime' makes the offence one grade higher than simply behaving unacceptably and as such it should not be treated by the police as a purely minor offence.

I know about the law, but I consider it to be bad law! If it would be a minor matter with a different motive, it is STILL a minor matter (and the degrtee of harrassment described on this thread is NOT minor!). The reason behind unacceptable behaviour makes no difference to the effect of that behaviour, and therefore no moral difference to its significance.

[ckfe]

Hi, I would definately recommend contacting your Police forces' LGBT Liaison officer. I know a lot of people don't have much faith in the Police, but in certain circumstances you just have to put your faith in them and hope they come good. Killing squirrels, or puting up defences around your crops isn't really stopping the probelm. If it is one of homophobia then this is what has to be addressed, as it can get really serious, really quickly.

didn't realise there was a LGBT liaison officer.. the woman PC who came round when we reported the crime was gay.. would have loved to have seen the neighbours face when the lesbian cop went round and asked her if it was true that as well as beating up my MIL she'd also said that my MILs daughter was a big fat dyke lol

[Incy]

installed the cctv yesterday, just got to get a video recorder now .. we got rid of ours thinking we'd never use it again!!.. i'm sure good old freecycle will come to the rescue

What a shame, OH just gave ours away to a friend