The case for culling grey squirrels in spite of PETA protests - GP Taylor

THE trees at the bottom of my garden are the nesting place for many wild birds. Worryingly, in spring of last year I began to find smashed bird eggs on the ground and wondered what was happening.

It wasn’t long before a raiding party of grey furry creatures came over the wall and into the trees. These loveable balls of fun quickly and systematically began to search the trees.

Blackbirds flew from nests and pigeons flapped to escape. The grey squirrels had found what they were looking for and feasted upon it.

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It wasn’t just the blackbirds that had a problem. I noticed that chicken eggs were vanishing from the coup. One morning I saw the thief. A large fat grey squirrel standing on the remains of an egg and licking its lips without a care in the world.

Grey squirrel. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.Grey squirrel. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.
Grey squirrel. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

From then on, I saw them in a different light. No longer were they a joyful addition to the wildlife I help in my garden. Now they were vermin, and, according to the Wildlife Trust, there are more than 2.4 million of them.

The trouble is that as the grey squirrel is an invasive species, it has no natural predators in this country. It is also the carrier of squirrel pox which will kill any native red squirrel that it meets.

According to information from the Northern Irish government, when the grey squirrel arrives in a red squirrel area, the red squirrel population usually disappears within 15 years.

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Some animal rights groups will try to tell you that our precious red squirrels will eventually build up a resistance to the pox, but that is scientifically impossible before the 140,000 reds that are left are all dead.

Red squirrel. Picture: James Hardisty.Red squirrel. Picture: James Hardisty.
Red squirrel. Picture: James Hardisty.

All this and the damage to woodland caused by these little grey invaders means the grey squirrel has to be culled from our land. Normally I would not condone the killing of any animal just to get rid of them, but in the case of the grey squirrel something has to be done quickly so as to stop the native red squirrel becoming extinct.

To completely eradicate these little monsters will take a concerted effort by government, conservationists and the reintroduction of the pine marten. This creature is an effective killing machine that was sadly killed off in many areas by game keepers to protect birds that rich people wanted to shoot.

Pine martens have to be released back into the wild in significant numbers. If the release experiment in southern Ireland is an indication of what might happen, the grey squirrel could soon be a thing of the past. The population of greys plummeted as pine martens increased.

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I long for the day when the fat and overfed squirrels in Scarborough’s Peasholm Park meet their end in the teeth of one of these creatures. The pine martens may even eradicate the hordes of rats that have taken to eating the food the obese, waddling squirrels at the boating pond are too full to swallow.

The trouble is that the grey squirrel is seen by many people as a cute furry animal that oozes charm with a cheeky chappie attitude.

Its garden antics are very entertaining and many people like having them around. People buy food just to feed these vermin in our parks.

However, no matter how lovely they look, they should not be here. It was the 11th Duke of Bedford who in the 1880s thought it would be nice to have a few squirrels he had got from America scampering around Woburn Park. His vanity has caused the two million strong ecological calamity we face today.

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Amazingly, people actually think this grey menace should be protected regardless of the devastation they cause. PETA UK state that “culling may actually lead to an increase in grey-squirrel populations”. Yet, this is not backed up with any scientific arguments.

They go on to say “similarly, traps may not kill instantly and don’t discriminate between a grey squirrel, a red squirrel, a cat, a human child, or any other animal”.

The traps detain the squirrel and don’t kill it. You would have to have a Tom Thumb sized child to get in a squirrel trap. If you caught a tiny cat or red squirrel in the trap you would just let it go.

You may ask yourself what does this matter if a couple of million grey squirrels inhabit our parks, gardens and countryside?

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The answer is very clear. We are an island with a very balanced eco system. The grey squirrel could be the cause of the demise of an increasingly rare native species.

It also hinders the rewilding of the countryside with its veracious appetite for young saplings and bird chicks. The American invader has no place here.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster. He lives in East Yorkshire.

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