Red squirrels thrive on islands such as the Isle of Wight, where there is no habitat fragmentation and no grey squirrels. Similar safe habitats could be expanded to other UK islands—without scapegoating grey squirrels or committing to violent, long-term eradication campaigns. 

Yet governments have repeatedly chosen lethal control. In Wales, publicly funded grey-squirrel killing has taken place for nearly two decades.2 Official control methods have included shooting (including lactating mothers), trapping followed by clubbing, and drey poking—where dreys containing mothers and dependent kittens are knocked from trees and any escaping animals shot on sight.⁽³⁾ Dependent young unable to escape commonly die from dehydration or starvation. Drey destruction has been identified by wildlife welfare groups as one of the most inhumane forms of culling, because it disproportionately kills juveniles.3 

The Welsh Government later declared Anglesey “grey-squirrel free,” using this culling as a conservation “success story”, despite the immense suffering caused. National Lottery funding played a significant role in financing grey-squirrel culls across Wales and England, and continues to be used in projects involving lethal control.4 This has occurred despite numerous public petitions calling for humane alternatives. 

Rather than endless killing, the UK should invest in a squirrelpox vaccine, which researchers consider biologically plausible and potentially deployable.5 A vaccine would represent a one-off scientific investment, unlike culls that must be repeated forever, at huge financial and ethical cost. 

Red squirrels can also be supported through non-lethal interventions, similar to how the public helps songbirds: providing food during harsh winters, installing nest boxes, and improving woodland structure. These methods boost red-squirrel numbers without harming greys, and without inflicting cruelty. 

Culling hundreds of thousands of grey squirrels has failed to deliver long-term improvements for red squirrels.6 It generates unnecessary suffering, creates ecological instability through rapid recolonisation, and diverts funding away from the only measures that truly help reds: habitat protection, habitat restoration, and disease control. 

Text has been kindly reproduced, with a few minor alterations, from:  

https://viva.org.uk/animals/other-animals/squirrels/