Extra police to patrol parks and hand out fines as large numbers of squirrels go missing to become household pets
Associated Press in Moscow
theguardian.com, Thursday 6 February 2014 12.37 GMT
One by one, the bushy-tailed residents of Moscow's parks have been disappearing. The problem: Russians have gone nuts for squirrels.
City official Alexei Gorelov says he has received multiple reports of squirrel poaching in local parks. In response, municipal authorities beefed-up security for all of Moscow's green areas.
Gorelov, who heads the ecological control department of eastern and north-eastern Moscow, said that more police patrols would be dispatched to fend off poachers, who can be fined up to 20,000 rubles (£357).
Squirrels, which are of little use for their meat or their fur, are primarily poached to become pets. Russian websites offer the creatures for sale at 5,000 rubles each.
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