Penny Bateman, of Wood­leigh, near Kingsbridge, writes:

I would like to inform the person who was selling a squirrel – or other small animals – trap in the free ads recently that it is an offence to release any grey squirrel that has been trapped.

If a grey squirrel is caught for whatever reason, it must be dispatched cleanly and humanely.

This subject was brought up during a Countryfile programme and the cameras had to be averted while a ‘grey’ was humanely killed.

We may see them as cute and sweet but they are vermin and do terrible damage to trees and can infect our native ‘reds’ with squirrel pox virus that can decimate their numbers.