We, the undersigned, are shocked at proposals set out by DEFRA to kill grey
squirrels, supposedly in order to protect dwindling numbers of red
squirrels.
Grey squirrels, DEFRA claims, are largely responsible for the decline of
the red squirrel'. They are also blamed for damaging woodland, but it is
people, not squirrels, who have consumed and destroyed vast tracts of
woodland and other wildlife-friendly landscapes. The red population is
rapidly declining, not only because of this loss of habitat, but because
they too were once unpopular and killed in vast numbers.
Grey squirrels flourish because they are more adaptable and hardy than the
red. Red squirrels will survive only if their preferred habitat (conifer
woods) is protected.
