If Mink or American Lobster were not considered as invasive species, then they would never have made the EU list of 'invasive species' in the first instance. Just as Mink and American lobster won a retrieve, we urge the government to give the UK Grey Squirrel a retrieve too, by scraping the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019. We also ask that citizens of Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands contact their MEPs and government, to urge them to remove the Grey Squirrel from the EU's 'invasive species list'. 

If you compile a list of supposed 'invasive species', then you either stick to that list 100% or you do not. What you do not do is 'cherry pick' which 'invasive species' can win last minute retrieves after intense lobbying from particular governments, after having done deals behind closed doors.3 

It must always be remembered that the UK Grey Squirrel was brought to our shores in the 1800s by aristocrats (also to Ireland in 1911), who wanted to use them to decorate their fancy lawns (and to Italy in 1966). The UK Grey Squirrel did not ask to come here and make our country its adopted home. They did not 'invade'. They were brought here, wanted, and now they are unwanted, being slaughtered en masse. The red squirrel was not too long ago unwanted, and slaughtered en masse too. 

The Invasive Alien Species Regulation (Regulation (EU) 1143/2014) came into force in the UK in 2019, when the UK was still an EU member state. This was then enacted into UK law by way of the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019. 

As the UK is no longer an EU member, this 2019 Order should be scrapped forthwith. This is one of our aims, whilst another is the scrapping of Regulation (EU) 1143/2014, so that grey squirrels in Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, are also no longer vilified, persecuted and slaughtered.