Red squirrels are among the UK's most charismatic native mammals, pushed to the margins by grey squirrel competition and squirrelpox. Their welfare requires active conservation management.
Red squirrel welfare involves two distinct concerns: the welfare of red squirrels themselves, and the welfare implications of grey squirrel control programs that protect them. Squirrelpox causes significant suffering before death. The grey squirrel control that prevents disease spread involves trapping and lethal control with welfare implications for grey squirrels. This tension illustrates compassionate conservation challenges: protecting one species sometimes requires harming individuals of another.