15 March 2007


John MacLeod Esq
Columnist
The Scottish Daily Mail


An Open Letter


Dear Mr MacLeod

Your article "Why the grey mafia have got it wrong"

Seldom have I read such trash against grey squirrels and Ross Minett
of Advocates for Animals as in your article published on 15 March
2007. My only hope is that you were being deliberately provocative
to bring the plight of the grey squirrels to public attention.

What you have written is support for Scottish Natural Heritage's
continuous ethnic cleansing propaganda that follows a murderous and
unhealthy fanaticism to control nature - now being carried out by
Aberdeen City Council.

There are a number of issues that you need to consider:

· The word "species" is no more than a scientific term within an
anthropocentrically concocted classification system. The idea that we
should have adjectives such as "native" and "non-native" describing an
inanimate term is nothing short of ridiculous.

· When a grey squirrel is clubbed to death, it's not an "alien
species" that is on the receiving end of the club, it's an individual
born and bred in this country and as "native" as you and me.

· The indigenous reds were shot to extinction (confirmed to me
by letter form the Forestry Commission) by estate owners and the like,
who referred to them in the past as "tree-rats" - the very same term
as being used against the greys now, to alienate them in the eyes of
the general public. Red squirrels were just as much a "pest" as
greys, to those who regarded them with intolerance.

· All individual squirrels in Scotland are native by birth
irrespective of their heritage or colour of their fur. The greys'
ancestors were brought here from America, just as the present
non-indigenous reds were brought here from Europe. Indeed, there is
little or no evidence to show that the past "indigenous" population
were not introduced as well.

· Squirrels are not "ours". We don't own them. They are
independent and parallel mammalian populations to our own, which
should be afforded the same respect and freedom we expect for
ourselves.

· Grey squirrels are not "aggressive" against reds. Reds and
Greys have co-existed in numerous places for years on end. It's us
humans that are destroying the reds' habitat.

· The pox virus can be passed from red to red as well as from
grey to red. Red squirrel populations are now showing signs of
antibodies similar to that which provides the greys with immunity. Few
greys have the virus but they are being slaughtered indiscriminately
on the premise of possibility. That is as unfair as it is obscene.

· The political and grant sucking fad of planting native trees
favours the expansion of the greys. This is well known by
conservationists. Yet only in very few places are they willing to
deviate from this path.

· SNH, who appear to answer to no one (they advise government
and are then provided with public money for carrying out their warped
agenda) are adopting the same principle of ethnic cleansing against
wildlife as many brutal regimes have done so against human
populations. This intolerance should be unacceptable in a civilised
society. It's a short step from slaughtering wildlife to slaughtering
humans.

I am publishing this letter on the Internet in the hope that some
people will have sympathy with the plight of the grey squirrel and I
challenge you to publish it in the Daily Mail.


Yours sincerely


Angus Macmillan
www.grey-squirrel.org.uk



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)