Squirrel t shirt,, handprinted t shirt. Crouching squirrel.

Grey squirrels- what's not to love?

This squirrel is an original design and is individually handprinted in vegan-friendly ink on a grey marl Fruit of the Loom t shirt. The design itself is approximately 8 by 12cm.

Grey squirrels get a bad press, and, in my view, some of the language used about them is actually quite disturbing. Describing a species as "foreign", "alien" and "invasive" is to 'otherise' them, to view them as a threat, as unwanted, and superfluous, and is usually a precursor to doing something terrible to that species.

Blaming grey squirrels for the decline in the number of red squirrels is to ignore the elephant in the room..or, actually, the humans in the room; it is not that greys have launched and won a war against red squirrels, but that they have outcompeted them for increasingly limited habitat and resources, and being bolder and more adaptable, have proved better at living alongside humans.

Grey squirrels didn't ask to be introduced to the UK, and instead of trying to hark back to some mythical golden age of wildlife when everything was exactly as we think it should be, with only 'native' wildlife in the UK, and every other species 'controlled' and 'managed' to death (that would mean no brown hares, dormice, pheasants, Sika deer or muntjac, collared doves or even rabbits), we should learn to be more tolerant and learn to live gracefully alongside them as they are forced to do with us.

If you would like to show your solidarity with these amazing creatures, I find that wearing a squirrel t shirt is a great conversation starter and gives us a chance to have conversations with people in which we can speak up for grey squirrels.

I will donate 10% of the profit on these squirrel tees to squirrel rescue in the UK; I will fill you in more about that when I dispatch your order to you.