[fintstone]

Folks in the country eat them. So do a lot of other predators (eagles, hawks, foxes, bobcats). No real predators in the city. The only natural enemy there is a car.

Where I grew up (deep in rural Appalachia), opossums, rabbits, racoons, ground hogs, muskrat, squirrels, etc. were rare as they were vigorously hunted or trapped. It was hard to even get anywhere near a squirrel (within range) ...because the few that survived were terrified of humans and ran very fast the other direction. There were no deer or bear or turkey. All were essentially extinct in the area. The nearby suburbs are overrun with these animals now and they are a nuisance. Black bears wander through the mall parking lot.

Ground squirrels were considered a nuisance as they would damage one's garden. They were executed on site just like rats (or foxes because they killed chickens). No one wanted to go hungry because of pesky animals.