A Dutch city spent $220K on a bridge for squirrels, but they aren't using it
This story was originally published on March 25, 2016.
The local government in The Hague, Netherlands, wanted to make sure squirrels were having safe sex, without having to dodge cars on a busy highway.
"They have this bridge so the squirrels on the one side of the road can have sex with the squirrels on the other side to prevent inbreeding," Coun. Arjen Dubbelaar told As It Happens host Carol Off.
Dubbelaar said most of the squirrel families are on one side of the road, so in order to expand the population, they want to encourage the squirrels come into contact with, and mate with, the squirrels from the other side of the road.
But when Dubbelaar looked into it, he found that in two years, only five squirrels had ever used the $220,000 dollar structure.
That's $44,000 dollars per squirrel.
Especially for my Canadian friends! Pictures of this very expensive <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/squirrel?src=hash">#squirrel</a> bridge. <a href="https://twitter.com/HarbordCBC">@HarbordCBC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cbcasithappens">@cbcasithappens</a> <a href="https://t.co/azEeWtmQ0j">pic.twitter.com/azEeWtmQ0j</a>
—@ArjenDubbelaarDubbelaar is criticizing the city government for spending so much on the bridge.
"Somebody has taken a decision to spend a hell of a lot of money to build this futuristic bridge," he said. "In the end, none of the squirrels are using it."
He says chauffeuring each squirrel across individually would have been less expensive.
"You could pick up the squirrel on one side and bring it with a taxi to the other side," he said. "That solution is cheaper than this bridge."
Dubbelaar says he can think of a much more economical solution: "If you take a rope [above the road] you'd be done with a few hundred Euros," he says.
At the end of his interview, Dubbelaar floated another proposal: "Maybe it's an idea to sell this bridge to Canada."