Parliament gets it... when will Congress?

BBC -- MP calls for mass squirrel cull

The reds are in drastic decline, and Mr MacLean, an MP in Cumbria, wants a pilot scheme run in Northumberland rolled out across the UK.

The scheme saw 17,000 greys destroyed, and supporters say this has led to a revival for the smaller red squirrels.

Even more amazing:

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Redesdale has been overseeing the scheme in Northumberland, and says he has almost rid the area of the grey squirrel.

This has been achieved with a government grant of just under £150,000, a professional trapper and 300 volunteers.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT! Where are his animal-rights-activist pals now?

But Andrew Tyler, the director of Animal Aid, told Five Live the project was "absurd".

"It's hateful and bigoted," he said.

"The reason the red squirrel is endangered in terms of its population is because it is being persecuted by people.

"Up until the 1950s people killed them by the hundreds of thousands because they were considered pests, just like the grey."

The reds are cuter, for sure. But in the end, they're all just skwerls. There are lots of different kinds of mosquitoes, too, but they're all nasty and vile and useless.

There are only 140,000 red squirrels in the country, in comparison with 2.5m greys. It is believed that the greys have thrived because of their greater ability to compete for food.

Mr MacLean has accused the government of not providing a "small investment" which he says could see, in the long-term, a native British species to thrive again.

Hey... if they want to get rid of all their two-and-a-half million American import skwerls, can we send all the gazillion English sparrows and starlings back to the UK? Arrange a swap? I can think of a lot of great stews and pot-pies I could make with all that influx of skwerlmeat.