squirrelunderpants / CC

Our friends at PETA Europe are fed up with how "culling animals" is hailed as a solution to so-called population "crises." The latest proposal comes from Scotland, where plans are in place to conduct a £1.3 million cull (read "mass slaughter") of the gray squirrel population. To satisfy everyone's needs—both the Scots' and the squirrels'—PETA Europe has come up with a humane alternative.

Squirrel underpants.

The idea for the teeny-tiny tighty-whities wasn't PETA Europe's—the kudos goes to the Squirrel Underpants Company. But PETA Europe is urgently calling for squirrel lovers everywhere to help it purchase thousands of pairs of those pants, which are specially made to fit squirrels, so that the mischievous little creatures will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to mate. Call them chastity pants, if you so wish.

Gray squirrels were introduced to the U.K. from the U.S. in the 19th century and have since been blamed for decimating the population of native red squirrels. But, in actuality, deforestation, epidemic diseases and harsh winters have all had an effect on red squirrels' numbers (not to mention hunters, who, let's face it, were killing them for bounties long before gray squirrels even arrived in Britain).

"The idea of exterminating millions of friendly and adaptable bushy-tailed squirrels is madness," says PETA Europe Director Robbie LeBlanc. "We want Americans also to help buy squirrel underwear and so stave off a Scottish attack on these little animals, as, after all, this is the peaceful solution to a problem that they created!" Mee-oww!

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Did you know that this is Be Kind to Animals Week?� Well, it is. So each day this week I’m going to do one entry dedicated to simple, easy things we can all do in our everyday lives to help animals.

Today I want to talk a bit about wildlife. Spring is a particularly important time of year for wildlife because that’s when baby birds are learning to fly and other animals are just learning their way around, so it’s super important to know what to do if you come across any of these little guys that appear to need help. It happens more often than you’d think. In fact, not a day goes by that we don’t get numerous calls from people all over the country who have stepped in to help wildlife in their area.

I’ll admit that this topic was kind of new to me. In fact, all I really knew was the whole thing about “if you touch a baby bird her mother won’t take her back into the nest because she will smell like a human,” which I learned is totally false anyway. So I guess I knew absolutely nothing useful about the topic beforehand! Luckily we’ve got a great online guide that will help you determine if the animals actually need help, and if so, what you should do and what supplies you need to help them.

The thing that most surprised me is that more often than not (unless the animal is in imminent danger), the right thing to do if you do come across any baby animals who may need some help is to take a wait and see approach to “rescuing” them. Often, Mom and Dad are nearby and the best thing to do is usually to leave the animals alone and let their parents take care of them.

Anyway, check out the guide, it’s great info, and of course, if you have any questions, you can always give us a shout.