On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:01:27 +0000, Elizabeth
wrote:

Has anyone else got non-hibernating gray squirrels this year?

Normally I can feed the birds at this time of year without the feeders
being raided
Elizabeth in Renfrewshire, Scotland.
Removex to reply


Grey squirrels don't hibernate.

Also they are being persecuted unfairly by those who want to exploit
red squirrels as a tourist attraction.



______________________


Misleading the public.

Whilst nobody wants the red squirrel to die out, the ongoing campaign
against grey squirrels is grossly unfair and doesn't stack up
factually.

Two reasons for the expansion of grey squirrels are the political fad
of planting native broadleaf trees and the exploitation of woodlands
for recreation purposes rather than havens for wildlife. Greys thrive
in deciduous woodlands and are less affected by human intrusion. These
policies do much to undermine the reds' habitat and their very
existence.

Because it is much easier to blame another species than our own
activities, grey squirrels are the conservationists' easy target and
are condemned as "aliens", even though, as individuals, they are as
native as any of us born in this country irrespective of colour or
creed. They are also condemned as carriers of Squirrel Poxvirus
(SQPV).

We are frequently told that the red squirrel has no immunity or
resistance to SQPV. However, I recently wrote to the Forestry
Commission, under the Freedom of Information Act, asking what evidence
existed that red squirrels had no immunity. I was subsequently
advised that "no routine testing of live red squirrels is undertaken"
and they "are not aware of any scientific evidence one way or another
as to whether or not there is a resistant population of reds out
there". Add to this, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC),
that advises government on such matters, states that the origin of the
virus is "unknown". On this basis, there is no foundation whatsoever
to the claim that red squirrels have no immunity or resistance to
SQPV.

Even more significantly, early in the last century, out of forty-four
districts in England where red squirrels had the disease, only four of
them had grey squirrels present. This confirms that the disease was
endemic within the red squirrel population long before they had any
contact with greys.

Around the same time, red squirrels were shot almost to extinction by
estate owners fearing tree damage and were condemned as "tree-rats" -
a term now being used, just as unfairly, to demonise grey squirrels.
As a result of this killing spree the present stock of reds is not
indigenous to this country as they were re-introduced from Europe.

It seems the conservationists' hate campaign against grey squirrels
has reached such a pitch that they are prepared to ignore anything
factual that doesn't quite suit their agenda.

Conservationists who say red squirrels have no immunity or resistance
to SQPV and that grey squirrels are passing on the disease, are simply
misleading the public

The truth is they don't know!


Angus Macmillan
www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
www.killhunting.org
www.con-servation.org.uk

All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)