It is perfectly humane to hunt squirrels with it!!!! However, be careful to shoot them in the HEAD... NO body shots. In additon, I'd stay away from the pointed pellets. I have a Beeman that I use and the pointed pellets go straight through them (I learned NOT to make body shots after that). You also need to find the effective range of your pellet gun, I don't normally shoot farther than 30 yards, if that. Go with either the standard pellet, with the flat head; Or even better, they do make hollow point and hollow cavity pellets nowadays. I too live in a semi-urban area (town of about 400 folks) and the dang squirrels like to destroy my bird feeder and tear up my sunflowers!!!! Gotta be careful that no one sees me shoot which is why I took the screen out of my front room window; Just crank 'er open and fire away! Not only do you have to be careful that no one sees you shoot, you have to be careful that no one sees the dang thing fall out of the tree! People tend to frown on that as well! But to keep from rambling... shoot 'em in the head and you shouldn't have any problems!