“Invasive” Grey Squirrels Are On the Menu in the UK

Grey squirrels in the UK have come under fire recently for invading homes, damaging trees, and displacing native red squirrels, and some people believe that killing and eating them is the solution to these problems.

Source: ITV News/YouTube

According to the Woodland Trust, an estimated 2.7 million grey squirrels exist in the UK. This increase in population is likely due to the lack of predators in urban parks, human waste, and because squirrels bread easily. Some researchers have been conducting tests to figure out how to feed them oral contraceptives to reduce their population. This project will probably come to fruition within the next year and a half, but in the meantime, slaughtering these critters for food or enjoyment remains an option for some.

Joe Roman, a Conservation biologist, came up with the concept of “invasivorism” over twenty years ago. He believes that reducing the populations of invasive species will help curb biodiversity loss and extinctions. He even created a website with recipes for invasive species in the United States.

“We need to say from the beginning that the goal is to reduce these populations – not to create a market for them. We don’t want people to say ‘wow, this crayfish is really good. I wish we had it in this river system’ or something like that,” said Roman, according to the Guardian.

But we wouldn’t accept this excuse for an invasive population of humans, or probably even an invasive population of cats or dogs, so what is it about these animals that makes this ok? Is it just that it’s an easy solution and gives us a convenient excuse to eat them?

Also, killing invasive species for food could ultimately create a market for them, traps could kill unintended prey, and the massive population of squirrels won’t be meaningfully reduced unless the demand for them is dramatically increased. Luckily, most people still seem to view them as “too cute” to eat.

“One of the things that makes them super-cute is that they’ve got hands. Rabbits are not that ‘handy’, but if you see a squirrel picking up a nut and nibbling it, it’s straight out of ice age,” said Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a chef who experienced some blowback after cooking squirrel on his show A Cook on the Wild Side many years ago.

Of course, “cuteness” shouldn’t matter when deciding whether or not to slaughter an animal. The relevant factor is sentience. But if we’re going to play the blame game, then maybe we should be looking in the mirror before declaring a species to be “invasive” or not.

“What’s your definition of vermin? If it’s someone who pollutes the environment, then human beings are the biggest vermin on the planet,” said Natalie Doran, the founder of a squirrel sanctuary in London, who is challenging legislation from 2019 that designated grey squirrels as an invasive species and mandates killing them if captured.

Maybe we should consider this before taking the lives of animals because of some minor inconveniences and instead figure out how to live in harmony with them and the rest of nature.

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