Dish of the drey: confit of squirrel

QUESTION: what meat is genuinely free range, totally organic, very low in fat and has zero food miles? Answer: the grey squirrel, American cousin to our own native British red. The campaign to halt the invasion of grey squirrels into Scotland, and to protect our native reds from being overwhelmed, has taken a new, culinary direction: eat a grey, save a red.

Dr Mike Swan, of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, is proposing that rather than just shoot the greys, we should cook them. "It's better to use them for something than to throw them away or bury the carcase," he argues. In Northumberland, where more than 18,000 greys have been destroyed in the past 18 months, squirrel has already become part of the menu.

The chef of the Matfen Hall Hotel, near Matfen, already offers confit of squirrel in a chestnut terrine. And the Famous Wild Boar Hotel, in Cumbria, is serving Peking duck-style squirrel wraps.

This could be a very sustainable way of dealing with vermin or animals that are a nuisance. Seagull pie could be a winner, though the diet of most seagulls probably consists of chips stolen from unwary tourists, so the health factor is probably negative. Similarly, turning urban pigeons into dinner is fine until you think what they are made of. Perhaps they could be recycled as cat food?