The native red squirrel has been displaced from most of Britain by the introduced grey squirrel and faces extinction without sustained intervention. Its conservation requires understanding the complex welfare dimensions of grey squirrel management.
Red squirrel conservation involves genuine welfare tensions between the native species requiring protection and the introduced grey squirrels subject to lethal control. Grey squirrels are sentient animals capable of suffering — the welfare implications of trapping and killing them must be honestly acknowledged even within a conservation framework that justifies those actions. More humane alternatives including immunocontraception are being developed and may eventually replace lethal control. In the meantime, trap checking frequency and method standards in conservation areas represent the most direct welfare improvement available for grey squirrels killed in red squirrel protection programmes.