The idea of a cruelty-free meat (Is it ethical to eat grey squirrel?, G2, 5 February) is utter fantasy. Grey squirrels are killed en masse across the UK based on a heinous combination of myth and misinformation. As mentioned in the article, grey squirrel culling can result in lactating mothers being killed, condemning baby squirrels to slowly starve to death. The squirrels who are killed directly are shot, or “dispatched” by a violent blow to the head – hardly “cruelty-free”.
It’s time for us to stop treating animals as commodities and resources to be exploited, and allow them to live out their lives in peace. As more and more people are realising, the only way to truly adopt a sustainable and cruelty-free diet is to switch to one that is plant-based.
Jade Emery
Campaigns officer, Animal Aid
• In the West Country, we used to call grey squirrels “tree rats”. People nowadays won’t eat rat (although post-Brexit, who knows?), because rats eat all sorts of rubbish. Grey squirrels in the wild eat nuts, berries, acorns, etc, and so I would have no problem in eating them, in Brextreme circumstances.
John Richards
Oxford
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