this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Guy had a squirrel that he cared for after it was injured and kept as a pet because when he (allegedly) tried to release the squirrel it turned up at his door sometime later injured again. (Brief recollection the story is online)
Anyway the city found out and confiscated (right word?) it because owning wild animals is illegal and euthanized it to test for rabies.
Edit: as other have pointed out, the squirell also apparently bit a police officer.
Yes, euthanization is necessary to test for rabies because rabies is freakishly good at staying under the radar until it's too late. That's why you need to keep your pets' shots up to date.
Additional context: the squirrel bit one of the officers that was confiscating it. So they absolutely needed to test for rabies.
Don't post your crimes to social media folks. Or do, I'm not a cop.
No they didnt have to "confiscate" anything and a "animal control officer" not even knowing how to handle a squirrel is a gigantic shit show on its own, especially when the squirrel had absolutely no possibility of even getting rabies itself
More recently introduced was a raccoon - another rabies vector animal. And the test for rabies becomes mandatory when you are bitten by any vector animal. You can't "know how to handle a squirrel" if you aren't the favored person who feeds it - it's a wild animal that had become accustomed to the owners presence at best. Raccoons and squirrels can legally be pets in some states, but NY is not one of them.
The guy was wrong. End of statement. There's avenues to keeping the squirrel (Google mentions a wildlife rehabilitation type job/permit that takes some months to earn that he could have done) It just keeps getting twisted because "the police did a thing" crowd, and also "oh the silly cute squirrel" crowd. Yes it was a silly cute squirrel and yes cops do bad shit - but this was on him for not moving to a place that would let him keep these animals.
OMG, take the L and STFU already.
You miss the fact that they confiscated it, then it bit someone, then they tested it for rabies.
My friend's dad cut a tree down in their yard that had a squirrel nest in it. He didn't know about the nest when he cut the tree down. Unfortunately the mom died when the tree was felled, and the babies couldn't survive on their own. My friend's family bottle fed the babies and raised them until they were old enough to be released. The squirrels never left. They'd run around in the trees and stuff, but they'd come back to the house, wanting to go to tier little beds at night, and get free nuts and stuff. They'd also tear around the house if the weather wasn't good that day. So, I completely believe that the squirrel came back after being released.
Edit: before the NYC animal department gets any bright ideas, this was 20 years ago, and in a completely different State.
You forgot to mention that rabies kill within 2 weeks and the squirrel was stay at home for 2 years, also squirrels aren't actually prone to rabies.
Rabies kills within about two weeks of symptoms appearing. It can sit dormant in the body for years before then. And although it's rare, squirrels can absolutely get rabies, and rabies isn't the type of thing you just assume isn't an issue.
Do you have any source for that claim?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_in_animals says otherwise
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/hcp/clinical-overview/index.html
The longest incubation period is at max a year and usually around 2-3 months, squirrels aren't likely to have them and they don't get infected by 5G or shit like that they have to be exposed to other rabies carrying animals that bite them.
Stop spreading medical misinformation