Allow licences to be issued to wildlife rehabilitators to release grey squirrels

Summary

We ask the Government to amend the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 to allow Natural England to issue licences to wildlife rehabilitators to release rehabilitated grey squirrels. We believe the current law criminalises compassionate wildlife care and does not affect the grey squirrel population, already well established in the UK. Some estimates suggest there are around 2.5 to 3 million grey squirrels in the UK. We think preventing the release of a small number of rehabilitated individuals by wildlife carers does not materially reduce their numbers but imposes, in our view, unnecessary penalties on those trying to help injured or orphaned animals. We believe our proposal would remove what we see as a perverse disincentive on veterinary and conservation practitioners, without advancing the species’ spread and without compromising biosecurity objectives.

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