I think the reason this happened is because of special interest groups wanting to move animals up on the same pedestal as man. There is a list of these groups as long as your arm, that want nothing more than to move man and animals on even ground. Just look at how fines, punishment, and jail time has risen for disposing of certain nuisance animals. Soon killing an animal will have punishment equal to killing a person.
I remember hearing one time of a forest fire in Calif. People were not allowed to plow a furrow around their homes for a fire break, because it would disturb the nests and nesting areas of some rat.
Kill a animal the feds have on their endangered species list and you could spend a year in jail and pay maybe $100,000 in fines. There are animals protected that are not anywhere close to being extinct or endangered, its just that some special interest groups forced game commissions or government to deem them protected.
Chipmunks are protected in PA. I have no idea why. There are millions of them and they can be a big nuisance. The law says that they can be taken and moved from a residence if they are a nuisance, but taken is not defined, whether taken means shooting them, or trapping and moving.
You really do have to be careful today when disposing of that nuisance animal. IG mentioned the right way to go about it. Shoot, shovel, and the biggest, shut your mouth. Because you know how talk can spread to the wrong places.