Restaurants are marketing grey squirrel meat as an ethical option for customers and serving it up as burgers and even lasagne. Proponents of the meat say the animals would be culled anyway as part of attempts to save the UK's native red squirrel population. The meat is supplied by a company which helps with the culls of grey squirrels, which now outnumber red squirrels 30 to one in the UK. Their decline is largely due the spread of the non-native grey squirrel, which was first introduced from North America in the late 1800s. Grey squirrels carry squirrelpox, a virus that doesn't harm them but is deadly to reds.

Source: Daily Mail February 04, 2019 10:08 UTC