In February 2020, the National Lottery Heritage Fund gave £99,900 to a project aimed at the reintroduction and preservation of red squirrels. The money was meant to be spent on, among other things, mass killing of grey squirrels, in a misguided attempt to help European reds.

It is too late for the animals who already lost their lives as a result of this grant award, but please, National Lottery, make a public pledge not to fund any more projects that involve killing sentient creatures!

Here in the UK we always hear that red squirrels are native and grey squirrels were introduced and drove them out, and that we must now kill the greys to help the reds.

This is wrong on several levels!

First of all, red squirrels became virtually extinct here in the UK BEFORE grey squirrels were introduced - because of habitat loss and because of disease (that broke out in areas with no greys present). So even if we killed all the grey squirrels, the reds would still struggle in England, since the habitat is now even worse, and they are not as adaptable as their grey cousins.

Secondly, following the extinction of the British sub-species, red squirrels were themselves reintroduced from Europe, so they are not native by origin either!
Another important consideration is that globally red squirrels are not an endangered species, their conservation status is "least concern": they thrive in many parts of the world, wherever the habitat is suitable for them. Just not in England. So why should we eco-cleanse the grey squirrels, an animal better adapted to the English habitat, and artificially maintain another species that is not even threatened with extinction!

Finally, by way of concession, even if someone did want to reduce the population of grey squirrels, why not use non-lethal methods, such as Gonacon contraceptive, being developed by the UK government's own laboratories, or genetic modification, worked on by the Roslin Institute. Not straightforward measures, but at least they are better than killing!

The National Lottery must pledge to do better. Please sign my petition if you agree that the National Lottery should never again actively fund the culling of helpless animals.