When squirrels attack

[Gob]

A three-year-old boy was left pouring with blood when he was attacked by a "pack" of squirrels as he fed them.



The animals pounced and bit Finlay Renouf five times at a country park in Cornwall, his mother Sophie, said.

"All of a sudden six of them came at him. I've never heard such a heart-rending scream. There was blood dripping everywhere," she said.

Cornwall Council said it may put up warning signs about feeding animals "if this becomes a regular problem".

Shop assistant Ms Renouf, 22, from Pool, said she had been to Tehidy Country Park several times before and fed the squirrels with Finlay.

"He was feeding them as normal with nuts. I wouldn't let him feed them if I thought there was any danger," she said.

"One squirrel came up and then all of a sudden six of them came out of the hedge.

"One of them bit him on the hand five times.

"There was blood pouring out of his hand and down his legs, it was all over him."

[dales]

2006-09-27 18:54:00 PDT -- A fierce squirrel attacked a 4-year-old boy at Mountain View's Cuesta Park last week as the rodent tried to wrestle a muffin out of the boy's hands, leaving him with scratch and bite marks that prompted a series of precautionary rabies shots.

The skirmish wasn't the first time the park's numerous tree squirrels targeted picnickers.

Mountain View Community Services Director David Muela said today that as many as six people have been bitten or scratched by squirrels since May, and that the attacks have become more ferocious in the last month. One squirrel even went so far as to jump into a child's stroller.

Ironically, efforts to curb the behavior may have exacerbated the squirrels' aggressive tendencies, Muela said.

This summer, the city installed new trash receptacles featuring metal tops with a latch that makes it nearly impossible for an animal to rummage through the can in search of food. Increased park ranger patrols and flier distributions cautioning against feeding the animals might have further cut the squirrels' food supply, prompting them to act more assertively in their quest for food.

As a last resort, the city is now looking to trap the animals for possible euthanization, Muela said.

The state Department of Fish and Game recommends against relocating habituated squirrels, he said, because their fear of humans has diminished and the problem is likely to remain. Instead, the department recommends the animals be put to sleep, Muela said.

The city hopes to launch the trapping program as early as this week when a series of metal barrels should be installed in the trees.

[BoSoxGal]

Dumb squirrels, first lesson of begging is - don't bite the hand that feeds!

[Joe Guy]

I object to euthanizing squirrels. They have families just like people do. They have to beg for food because the white man has always treated them unfairly. Try seeing things through a squirrel's eyes for once.

SLM!

[RayThom]

[Bicycle Bill]

You'd do all you could to wipe out rats, wouldn't you?
And what is the difference between a squirrel and a rat?

The squirrel has a bushy tail; otherwise, not a hell of a lot.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

Any bets the kid got scared when all the s-words jumped out and he tried to clutch his nuts ever more tightly? The poor bushy thugs then were forced to mug the fingers.

It's not the vermin; it's the victim!

[oldr_n_wsr]

Squirrels are good eatin'.
Especially the brains.

Feed the homeless.

[rubato]

Nuts soaked in strychnine will do the trick.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Almost as fun as gassing the neighborhood cats?

[rubato]

Almost as fun as gassing the neighborhood cats?

They weren't "neighborhood cats", my parents live on a rocky somewhat rural hillside and they were our cats. Ours only because irresponsible idiots would abandon cats on that road rather than kill them themselves like a moral person would do. We used a number of things to get the situation under control after there were just too many of them. Most were not even half domesticated and it was impossible to even get them all distemper shots. The adult Toms would kill the male kittens before 3 mos old and not in the most humane way. Some would climb up into the engine compartment of the cars to sleep with grisly consequences if we forgot to honk the horn before starting the engine. Chloroform worked but was quite slow. Much slower than you would think. Car exhaust was the best. Fairly quick, certain, and on a cold morning they seemed to like the warmth.

Anyway we stepped up to the plate and solved a problem that other people caused so there is a sense of having done the right thing and made the world a better place. Not "fun" but the fulfillment of obligation is a pleasure.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

"Not "fun" but the fulfillment of obligation is a pleasure."

[rubato]

In fact I don't recommend using strychnine and I don't use it on gophers (satan's subterranean minions) because of the high secondary kill of other animals.


I use the "gophinator" stanless steel trap. Very efficient.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

"Not "fun" but the fulfillment of obligation is a pleasure."[/center]

You and PETA! Moral Twinsies! Both of you have trouble understanding the moral difference between killing chickens and feral cats and killing humans!


What a jackass.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

You and PETA! Moral Twinsies! Both of you have trouble understanding the moral difference between killing chickens and feral cats and killing humans!

They were right to riot and should, in fact, have killed everyone in city government. That would have been the right thing to do

And they deserve to be killed.

[Lord Jim]

What you did was reprehensible, disgusting, utterly lacking in any level of morality, and the fact that you took pleasure from it makes it sadistic as well...

And the fact that you don't feel shame or sorrow for what you did (rather than apparently "pride" which is what you appear to be expressing ) proves you to be completely lacking any moral compass, and utterly bereft of any decency...

I would not have thought it possible rube, but you've actually managed to find a way to lower my opinion of you...

[rubato]

What you did was reprehensible, disgusting, utterly lacking in any level of morality, and the fact that you took pleasure from it makes it sadistic as well...

And the fact that you don't feel shame or sorrow for what you did (rather than apparently "pride" which is what you appear to be expressing ) proves you to be completely lacking any moral compass, and utterly bereft of any decency...

I would not have thought it possible rube, but you've actually managed to find a way to lower my opinion of you...

Poor baby. Your Mengele simile turned out to be thoughtless, stupid and amoral didn't it? And now you are desperately trying to pretend that solving a problem in the same way as the local animal control would is somehow wrong. Stuuuuupid. We eliminated a population of sickly distemper-ridden abandoned feral cats in a manner more humane than nature was killing them with. If we did wrong it was only to deprive the local coyotes of an easy food source.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

You and PETA! Moral Twinsies! Both of you have trouble understanding the moral difference between killing chickens and feral cats and killing humans!

They were right to riot and should, in fact, have killed everyone in city government. That would have been the right thing to do

And they deserve to be killed.

First you should consider context. Second you should have bothered to educate yourself about what was happening in Ferguson. I have told you this many times. If you had you would have seen that I was advocating self-defense.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

Oh, I also killed two rattle snakes ( a Red Diamondback and a Western Diamondback) next to the front door. My mother was blind and as I was 14 at the time it seemed the wisest course. I had tried calling both animal control and the sheriff's office but their reaction was "so, what do you want us to do about it?" Rural Riverside county expected some level of self-sufficiency back then. At my current age I might have found another solution but at the time, having been left to my own devices, it was the best I could come up with.

I caught a variety of other snakes in the yard (two striped racers, a calico snake, a gopher snake, and a black-headed brown snake I rescued from the cats) but they were all released unharmed to live out their slithery lives.


yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

There are many cat rescue groups that will take feral cats and not kill them. I've used them many times because I get no pleasure from killing animals.