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Grey squirrels in the UK are killed using methods that most people would consider profoundly cruel.
These include being struck over the head with blunt objects, shot at close range with air rifles or pistols, crushed underfoot, or confined and killed without any requirement for veterinary oversight or humane standards.
These practices are lawful under current wildlife control policy — and they include the killing of nursing mothers and dependent young.
Many members of the public assume that lethal control is regulated, humane, or strictly supervised. In reality, grey squirrels are afforded no meaningful welfare protections once designated for killing.
In most circumstances, no licence is required to kill a grey squirrel, and there is no requirement for the person carrying it out to be trained, qualified, or assessed for competence. While certain weapons and traps are regulated under separate laws, the killing itself is not subject to to no welfare oversight or independent scrutiny — regardless of method, suffering, or outcome.
Each officially recommended method of killing grey squirrels causes severe suffering.
Each officially recommended method of killing grey squirrels causes severe suffering.
Live-capture traps leave squirrels confined and distressed until the trapper returns. Although guidance suggests traps should be checked daily, this is not a legal requirement. As a result, squirrels may be left for days to die from starvation, dehydration, injury, or exposure.
When the trapper returns, the squirrel is typically shot at close range or killed using the so-called “sack method”, in which the animal is forced into a sack and beaten to death.
Spring traps are intended to kill instantly, but frequently do not. Squirrels may be caught by a limb or shoulder rather than the neck or spine, leaving them trapped and conscious while they die slowly from blood loss, thirst, or starvation.
Firearms are widely used, most commonly air rifles or pistols. There is no statutory guidance on weapon type, calibre, or shot placement for killing grey squirrels, and no requirement that the person carrying out the killing be trained or competent. This absence of standards exists because grey squirrels have no legal welfare protection once designated for killing.
Killing continues during nursing season
Killing continues during nursing season
Grey squirrels may be lawfully killed during nursing season, when mothers are raising dependent young. Kittens are born blind and rely entirely on their mother for warmth, nutrition, and survival for the first two to three months of life.
When a nursing mother is killed, her kittens are left behind in the nest to die slowly from starvation or exposure. This outcome is a known and accepted consequence of lethal control policy.
Other methods
Other methods
Despite being illegal, drowning continues to be used to kill grey squirrels. The persistence of this method reflects the absence of enforcement and meaningful consequences.
During late winter and early spring, hunters may use the “drey poking” method. One person disturbs the nest with a pole while another shoots squirrels as they flee. Kittens that fall from the nest may be killed by dogs or crushed underfoot.
In buildings, warfarin poison is sometimes used. This anticoagulant causes internal bleeding and a slow death from acute anaemia, often over several days.
Buster
Cared for by a licensed rescue centre.
This photograph shows Buster as an orphaned infant — calm, safe, alive, and thriving.
His mother was trapped and killed as part of lethal grey squirrel control. After she was beaten to death, her body was checked for signs that she had been nursing. Milk ebbed out of her body.
Her nearby drey was then located.
Buster’s brothers and sisters were just four days old. They were forced from the nest using a metal pole — a practice known as “drey poking” — and crushed underfoot.
Buster survived only because he had been concealed by leaves when he fell to the ground, and was found in time and taken to a licensed rescue centre.
This is what lethal control looks like in practice — not just the killing of individual animals, but the destruction of entire families.
Buster was a lucky survivor. He fell from his drey unnoticed, concealed by leaves, close to the bodies of his mother and siblings. He was found by a passer-by who witnessed the killing from a distance, but was too frightened to intervene.
Buster was taken to a licensed rescue centre, where he now enjoys playtime with his soft zebra toy, mashed avocado, hazelnuts, and evening cuddles.
Buster will never know life in the trees. Under current UK law, he cannot be released into the wild.
Grey Squirrel Protection UK campaigns for a change in the law — so that Buster, and many others like him, may one day be allowed to live free.
References
British Association for Shooting and Conservation. ‘Grey squirrel control.’ BASC. Available at https://basc.org.uk/advice/basc-grey-squirrel-control/ [Accessed 17 July 2020].
Crowley, S.L., Hinchliffe, S.J., McDonald, R.A., 2018. ‘Killing squirrels: Exploring motivations and practices of lethal wildlife management.’ Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. 26 April. Available at https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/32622/Killing%20Squirrels%20Accepted%20Version.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y [Accessed 17 July 2020].
https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/culling-grey-squirrels-unjustifiable-scientifically-ethically/ [Accessed 12 April 2024].
Some text has been kindly reproduced, with a few minor alterations, from:
TMany organisations tell the public that if a grey squirrel is trapped it must be killed and cannot be released.
This is misleading.
If a grey squirrel is accidentally trapped — for example in a bird feeder, netting, or on private property — the law does not prohibit freeing it and allowing it to leave where it was found.
What the law restricts is the deliberate capture and release of grey squirrels into the wild — not the act of freeing an animal that has become unintentionally trapped.
The RSPCA confirms this distinction in its public guidance:
👉 https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/squirrels/injured
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