PARSIPPANY – A township homeowner who says he's struggled for years with a squirrel invasion is due in court after he allegedly killed one of the animals with a trap about a week ago, police said.

Mark Paul Slaughter, 52, has been charged with needlessly killing an animal and not providing food, water or protection to an animal, police said.

Parsippany Animal Control Officer Chris Dikovics charged the man last Tuesday after authorities received a report that Slaughter had been trapping squirrels at his Lake Hiawatha home, Parsippany Police Officer Earl Kinsey said.

Slaughter said yesterday he had been trying to keep squirrels off his property for 17 years, catching them with the trap and then releasing them a few miles away in a wooded area.

During that time, he said, the animals broke into his home and were responsible for foul odors, and they destroyed the wooden edges on his roof. Slaughter estimated that he caught and released at least 50 squirrels.

The man forgot to remove the trap two weekends ago as he went out of town to celebrate his birthday and the Easter weekend, resulting in a squirrel starving to death in the cage. It remained there for at least four days, he said.

“I just stupidly left the thing out,” he said.