Scotland Outdoors

Your Views

Peter Carmichael
There seems to be two main arguements for culling grey squirrels:1. They damage trees reducing estate income from timber. Red squirrels also damage trees, but their numbers are small in compaison so it is less of a problem, and ithe damage is largely confined to conifers, which are not so often used for timber, but fibre.2.Reds are native but greys are not. Does this matter in itself? Greys cause more damage to broad leaved woods than reds to readdress the problem we might need to cover more of England in Scots pine forest, how popular would that be in the home counties, yet another foreign invader taking over our native home?Solution: trap Grey squirrels, but instead of culling them dye them red.2.

Henk
Red ones are native and grey ones are not. It's like seagulls; they belong at the sea side but now they're taking over town centres. Cull them all, I'd say: rats because we don't want them at all, seagulls where they're a nuisance in towns and villages, grey squirrels where they're not native. Greys also very often cause mayor damage in people's lofts, so even more reason.

nick s
I live by a forest and have only ever seen a red once, but I think it is completely stupid to kill thousands of living animals for the pleasure of seeing a few red squirrels. if you say it is so the read squirrels can live, well shame on you, you will end up killing millions of squirrels fore a few thousand red squirrels.

Bob shank
survival of the fittest. the reds will probably die anyway and being discriminate to grey squirrels is wrong. we introduced them in 1892 to see what would happen. it inset there fault and killing them for our mistake is not the answer. a edible vaccine is the only sane way to deal with the problem.

Gordon Macpherson
Take veterinarian advice re feasibility of cull or hormonal sterilisation of greys, male and female, and implement before the virus mutates and affects the natural red squirrels.

Gordon
1. Take veterinarian advice re feasibility of cull or hormonal sterilisation of greys, male and female, and implement before the virus mutates and affects the natural red squirrels.

Amy Egerton
I bleieve there is a need for the culling of grey squirrels, although it may not be the nicest of things to think about, at the minute it really is the best chance we have to save OUR reds. Unfortunately science has not yet found a way to fully destroy this horrible disease and although if found, the reds can be treated too many are dieing from it. I can see the ethical and moral issues of culling, but people NEED to see that its our best chance. I personally have not seen a red squirrel since I was a young child. This is a highly important issue which needs to be investigated further. Because of this i have chosen the current problem of squirrel pox to be the topic of my report i am creating as i study biology. Cullers, well done, please keep up the good work.

Rowena Chadwick
Mother nature will take its course. Once we have over run the world too much a disease will come and cut our numbers down. Should we cull humans to prevent this???Or do you think that is going to far because we are supposed to have a higher intelligence. You would think we would, (if we are as intelligent as we are supposed to be) we would stop using all the natural resources of this poor planet and use renewable ones and yet we continue. If we are all so worried about saving lives shouldn't we be concerned about saving everyone's habitat first then move on to individual species.

Douglas Dagg
I had, in the end, a boring task of disposing of 18 grey squirrels over a period of ten days. This is from a small walled garden one mile from House of Commons, London.Now we have to put up with sweet songbirds wakening us just before dawn.D'ye ken?

Kelly
"Brave enough to do it?" Killing a squirrel is brave? I wish the squirrels were 6' tall and you were trying to kill them. I suppose that might be more "brave". And as for the argument that they're not originally from here and therefore they should be killed? Ummm, I'm seeing all kind of flaws in this argument if you extend it a just little and consider other species ... Never mind, I'm just going to pop out and fill out squirrel feeder, and I'm not fussed whether a red or a grey stops past for something to eat. But, if I catch any of you trying to hurt them. Well, you'd better actually be 'brave' after all.

stuart robb
so in 20 years when theres not a red to be seen what do i say to my kids .cull the grays and get back to what the countryside should be

Chris Harper
Every effort should be made to eradicate the disease, if that means culling the greys, so be it. It would be truly wonderful to see the return of the red squirrel in the remnant ancient oak woods here in Snowdonia!

Alison Drew
Dear Mr P godley - perhaps you are one of the "cuddly bear brigade" my neighbour in West Yorkshire refers to who cannot bring themselves to cull any wild animal and that is why you presume that I am inhumane. Whatever I am, I am certainly not that. I have even released the odd few grey squirrels we have caught in our trap instead of drowning them. However inhumane you thing drowning them is, surely it is less inhumane than letting the red squirrels die a horrible death by squirrel pox at the expense of keeping a few thousand "cuddly grey squirrels" alive that are not even native to this country??!! Thank goodness for common sense people like Crystal Anderson. I can understand completely why people think it is cruel to kill a wild animal. But in this particular case I can't see how anyone could argue that it does not have to be done - by whoever is brave enough to do it.

Crystal Anderson
In response to Mr Dempster. Speaking as someone who has helped kill and butcher the beef she eats, you are right: we live in a society where most people could not bring themselves do what they are asking others to do and personally kill an animal, whether it be for the meat they eat or to stop an animal that is causing the decimation of a native species. Does that truly mean these people veto their right to ask others to kill the grey squirrels? I do not think so. I do see the moral argument you refer to, which is 'do not ask others to do that which you, yourself, refuse to do', and I, perhaps like you, believe that our society would be a better one if people understood what it is to kill the food they eat. However, I am realist enough to accept that our society is not built in this way. Personally, I stongly wish that all people in our society would understand that killing a few animals for the welfare of the remaining population (or in this case, killing a non-native species for the welfare of native species) is preferable than not killing any animals at all. So I ask that you please allow those who know they could not, themselves, kill a grey squirrel to believe that the death of grey squirrels is currently the best way to save the red.

david maclean
Leave the squirrels alone and cull the bankers.

P Godley
"We regularly catch them in a squirrel trap and drown them..." Alison DrewVery humane :(

Alistair
Okay, firstly being born on the Isle of Wight I have a fondness for the red squirrel. I also am studying biology, and have learnt a great deal about the problems of invasive species. The people who are saying we have no right to try and control the grey squirrel population in hope of saving the red squirrel are crazy! For starters, it was humans who purposely introduced the grey squirrel without realising the potential problems. Had they known they'd reduce the red squirrel population to 140,000, maybe they would have reconsidered. It is the grey squirrel that carries the pox virus, and since the reds are at such risk from it, it is likely they hadn't been in contact with it until the greys arrived. It is humans who have alreasy put the future of the red squirrel at risk, so wiping a small fraction of the global grey population from the UK, isnt going to harm the greys, but will give the reds a chance to recolonise!

John & Lesley Swift
We have Red Squirrels in our garden in Grasmere thanks to the Squirrel Society locally. We are very interested in the Squirrel Feeder which was shown on the programme about Wild Gardens. Can you give us the address so that we can get hold of one?

ann
I have heard that a few reds have been found with a pox resistance here but don't know which part of the country this is. Is this so, and if so is this a good sign?

Alison Drew
Grey squirrel suppporters please get logical - As Alistair Hackston says grey squirrels are imported vermin and nothing but that - rats with bushy tails. They do NOT belong here. The reds DO. The greys are pests and I wholeheartedly support culling them. In our garden in West Yorkshire we regularly catch them in a squirrel trap and drown them without causing harm to any other wildlife in the process. I just wish everyone in our area would do the same. There are too many here for just a handful of households to try to get rid of. Why do the the bird feed suppliers suggest feeding the little perishers, that's what I'd like to know?! Also, does anyone have any suggestions for an environmentally friendly way of disposing of them once they are drowned other than putting them in the rubbish bin?

lee middleton
i"ve got three grey squirrels wot i hand reared from babys in a avery culling is not the answer

SEAN TAYLOR!!!
I THINK THIS IS A VERRY VERRY SEREOUS PROBLEM AND I THINK WEE NEED TO STOP THINKING OF OUR SELFS AND CARE ABOUT THE BIGGER PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. SEREOUSLY PEOPLE STOP BEING SO INCONSIDERATE WE NEED TO PUT A STOP TO THESE TERABLE DISSEASES I MEAN IMAGINE WHAT A WORLD WITH OUT SQUIRRELS WOULD BE LIKE THERES SOMETHING FOR YOU TO CHEW ON......

Keith Mitchell
What do Advocates for Animals mean by an “ethical and practical long term solution”. Are they going to bring in squirrel social workers? Of course a cull is required!

mitch smith
i personally control grey squirrels via shooting i manage a country estate where trees from all around the world are grown we plant woodlands and hedges and the damage that greys cause to these trees is unbelievable they have destroyed every tree in some woods we have had an on going battle to keep them away but with no success we are trying to help the environment by planting trees and hedges but greys destroy them as fast as we plant them the only way to solve this problem is to keep shooting them it gets the numbers down fast and efficiently if you saw all the damage greys cause allot of you would soon change your views

Mikki
I was fortunate to see my first red squirrel a few years ago and was stunned by the beauty and colour and the animal. The grey is a poor relation in comparison. Not being native to this island I see no reason to stop a cull. We can't move them like the hedgehogs of Uist, so culling is the only answer.

Michelle
I think the idea of culling grey squirrel's is a disgrace. There is no actual evidence to prove they pass disease. What right does the council have to decide what animals live and which ones die. SHAME ON YOU ALL !!!!!

Dr D J Driscoll
And I quote, "While details of the method of infection from grey to red remain unclear...", so there is no proof that the disease passes from grey to red. Most likely it passes from red to red because us humans have forced them into ever smaller areas by destroying their natural habitats, making disease endemic in the concentrated populations.

Tom Campbell
Actually, the North American Red and European Red squirrels are separate species. While red and grey squirrells co-exist here in Maine - and I'm watching them raid the bird feeder as I type this - they will probably both have evolved the same resistance to Squirrel Pox, a resistance that the European Reds have not had time to develop and may never have time to develop if the Greys are allowed to spread.

helen duryea
do grey surills build nests in tress? i live in suthern berrkshire county in massachuettes, for the past three to four weeks this one squirell has been taking a bunch of leaves up and down the tree she would take some up ,then come back down ,put some more leaves in her mouth and tak them up the tree.

Silwni
Favouring one animal against another is always wrong. How far back for 'indigenous' do you go? Grey squirrels have been here for a very long time and are naturalised. Perhaps all human immigrants d descended from Norman times should be culled too? Look at the diseases they carry - colds, flu, measeles, warts etc etc. And their habits are dreadful! ( Of course that would include most of the UK population) Squirrels are small mammals living their own lives. It is insulting in the extreme for both animals to call them rats. Rats are highly intelligent creatures too. In other countries they are revered and quite rightly. It is the height of human arrogance to presume it is OK to control other creatures by killing them or in ay other way. We are just another animal species and should try harder to leave other creatures alone.

Dave Dempster
a great many red squirel lovers want to see the Greys culled but it came down to it, would they have the nerve to stand by their views and carry out the cull personally? ie We all like our beef but not many would resort to, 'Killing the cow'.

Roselette DeWitt
I live in North America Ma and Rhode Island. While I lived in the Berkshires we had tons and tons of red squirels - the Grays are NOT responsible for the demise of the Reds, the Reds unfortunatley have been on their way out - are we to kill every non British established animal - I love the cute little Reds but I will not kill a gray - let them work it out on their own - Britain has gone kill happy on animals - if reds and grays can live together in Massachusettes then they can live in Scotland!

bob
The problem is not grey or red it is the pox! Geezpay attention!

robby
it worked for us with the cull on rabbits so why not do the same for the greys cull them to stop the decease, after all they cull baby seals for nothing

morgan imrie
i love squirlls

Claudia Pleass
Rats with fluffy tails that wreck birds nests and can kill trees with their drays, if I understand correctly. Grey squirrels should get a bad press and become everyone's enemy. Vermin.

Ms Macleod
I do think we should do everything possible to stop the greys and if that includes a cull then so be it. We must save our reds, we must not waste time because ther it will be very difficult once the greys get in. I have been involved in a small way to stop the greys getting through but at the end of the day they must be stopped.

Catherine Mackay
It would be best to find an "ethical and practical long term solution"; but in case that solution comes too late for our indigenous reds, I think a cull should be carried out on the greys who are, after all, classed as vermin. By whatever means they reduce the red population in the areas they start to populate.

P Cliffe
Greys are simply not supposed to be here, and I see no logical reason for there not to be a cull. the 'fluffy' brigade will no doubt protest, but would they rather see a red die in slow agony, or even worse have a future with no reds?

Nobby
The red squirrels are such evolutionary losers in every aspect of the squirreling job - How can anyone argue for their survival?

Alistair Hackston
I would support a cull of grey squirrels. These are imported vermin.

Elspeth Sinclair
I myself nor my children, have ever seen a red squirrel in the flesh, only a stuffed one at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.This really is an unbelievable situation for a native animal to be in. I think grey squirrels should be culled to preserve the native reds. After all, greys are basically just like "rats with bushy tails" and don't actually belong here.If nothing is done, we may lose the red squirrels altogether. That would not only be tragic but unacceptable.

Bill Gray
The greys are less fearful of people than the reds and until people stop feeding them as they do in Kelvin Grove the reds have no chance. An edible vaccine is urgently required.

Andrew Wilson
If there is no immediate vaccine or other remedy available then a culling programme is necessary to protect our native red squirrel population. Sterilisation of greys should also be considered to protect red's homelands and halt the spread of the grey population.