Grey squirrels are invasive in the UK and subject to lethal control for conservation, raising important welfare questions about sentient animals managed as pests.
Grey squirrels are sentient mammals capable of pain and suffering. Lethal control methods including shooting, trapping and gassing cause welfare harm to individual animals even when conducted in the context of legitimate conservation management. The development of species-specific immunocontraception offers the prospect of population-level management without repeated lethal intervention, substantially reducing the aggregate welfare cost of grey squirrel management in the UK.