Help Save our UK Native Squirrel ..............(click the image to watch the video)

Please click on the red squirrel to see the video, then tick the box to "share on Facebook"

There seems to be a lack in knowledge by the UK media in how to help and protect our native squirrel. At every opportunity they seem to use images and videos of non native squirrels to assist in promoting their viewing figures or sell magazines and newspapers. This may be because they mainly have  their headquarters based in southern England where the non native grey squirrel are widespread and have eradicated the native red squirrel. Their reasoning is possibly because the local populations who only see grey squirrels in their environment can relate to their particular article or news item.

The UK Forestry Commission and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) both recognise the fact that the grey squirrel is only here because of rich land owners importing them during Victorian times. Due to its high number density the grey squirrel causes millions of pounds of damage to woodland by gnawing bark on trees which can lead to the trees death by "ring barking" or infection by fungi and viruses. The public mainly in central and the southern UK have been brainwashed by some of the media and ill-informed groups into thinking that the grey squirrel is a cute, cuddly and innocent creature when in fact it is anything but.

One of the statements the UK's media and other groups use in trying to defeat proposals to control grey squirrels is that the decline of the native UK squirrel is due to the fact it was almost exterminated by the fashion industry. However the fact is the last native squirrels to be killed for this reason was possibly over a century ago. In fact in 1839 over 2,700,000 red squirrel pelts were imported into the UK from Flanders. So it can be seen that this is only a historical fact and that pre World War 1 the native squirrel could still be found across most of the UK and it is the spread of the non native squirrel which carries the deadly squirrel pox virus which has been a major influence in the decline of the red squirrel.

The UK government being part of the EU has a responsibility to help native species and eradicate non native species - Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European Parliament - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1417443504720&uri=CELEX:32014R1143

Many garden centres and pet shops now sell squirrel food and feeders even though the nearest native squirrel population is hundreds of miles away. Should such money making schemes be allowed as it only fuels the spread of non native squirrels across the UK? Should it be made illegal to knowingly feed any non native species?

The UK government has recently scrapped the 1937 law which made a failure to report grey squirrels on your land a criminal offence. Although many people did not know such a law existed it was not a good enough reason to scrap a piece of legislation which could of helped conservation groups in the future in their battle to save the squirrel. This action was just another nail in the red squirrels coffin. I wonder how many people know that it is an offence to release a grey squirrel back into the wild even if you find one injured and nurse it back to health. Will the UK government in the future bend to the pressure from the media on this and withdraw this legislation as well?
It seems there will only be any sustained media coverage for action once the decline of the red squirrel is final and it becomes extinct in the UK. Then of course there will be a public outcry that such a thing could be allowed to happen and a call for a very costly reintroduction programme.

Please help conservation and environmental organisations such as the RSPB with their "Vote for Bob " campaign - https://www.voteforbob.co.uk
not to mention the Red Squirrel Northern England organisation - http://www.rsne.org.uk/
and the many Wildlife Trusts etc – http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/
which between them have devoted many tens of thousand of man hours mostly by volunteers and a their precious (mostly donated) money in trying help preserve the native species including the red squirrel across the UK

Please, please, please sign this petition to help preserve our only native squirrel before it is too late. NB tick the box to "share this on Facebook"