Should we eat grey squirrels to help save trees?

CHAIRMAN of the UK Forestry Commission Sir Harry Studholme’s suggestion of eating culled grey squirrels may cause outrage in some quarters, but should it? Wood pigeons are killed in huge numbers on farms and are perfectly edible. Unless better methods of control can be found, shouldn’t we be more honest about the massive impact of Western lifestyles and eat animals which will be killed anyway?

IAIN CLIMIE, Whitchurch, Hants.

I DON’T think eating our way through the squirrel problem was Sir Harry

Studholme’s first choice. He mentioned pine martens as a possible biological control; the Forestry Commission has also invested in research on fertility control for squirrels. If those options fail, we are left with trapping and shooting. I don’t personally believe the nation’s hunger for squirrel meat will drive squirrel numbers down, but it might help the economics. It’s in everyone’s interests to grow healthy trees to help reduce imports of timber (and tree diseases), but it can’t be done without controlling grey squirrels.

Dr JONATHAN REYNOLDS, head of predation control studies, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, Hants.

I LIVE in a ‘hunting and shooting’ area but am sickened by the excuse of ‘we are managing the countryside’, which is pure farce. In 50 years, the red squirrel will probably be demonised just as the grey is being now. Countless badgers have been trapped and killed; foxes have to run the gauntlet; hares are a rarity; and pheasants are overbred, with many ending up wandering about looking for food and dying on the roads. So, yes, the planet is at risk — all of it due to us humans.

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