That was a shit story and that department was 100% out of line. but I don’t think it was the police doing anything but helping a department with a search warrant.
At first I felt bad then I realized the guy had that squirrel for 7 years and never got a permit or anything. Bro come on how do you not get the paperwork for an animal that you make a living off.
The question is why you need a permit in the first place for a animal that lives close to humans anyway, the raccoon thing I was made aware of is another story but would also have been better handled with talking to him.
Because it is a wild animal that can carry rabies.
The way it played out is the squirrel bit someone. The only way to check for rabies and be 100% certain is to cut the brain. Which obviously doesn’t lead to the animal being alive anymore. But at the end of the day, a squirrel’s life is less important than that of a human, so it had to be done.
Humans can also technically carry rabies.
And also you can begin the immunization for rabies even if you don’t know if the animal has it or not, its the same as getting it as a preventative measure, wich should be required for animal control in general anyway.
So what that humans can carry rabies? Do you see a difference between a human and a squirrel or not?
Uhhhhh. Actually in this specific case, NO.
Then there is no point in talking to you. What they did was 100% justified and that’s the end of the discussion.
I think you are mentally deranged and can’t handle facts.
Squirrels aren’t a typical vector for rabies. There was no indication the squirrel was exposed to a rabies vector, like a bat, any more than a household pet or human.
It bit a NY cop though, that’s what happened.
Its an adopted wild animal it needs to be registered and vaccinated that makes sense to me. But yeah it’s insane how poorly they treated the situation. Idk how they can justify the process.
Yeah the vaccination part is fine, the registration is questionable but OK and whatever they did was beyond stupid.
I don’t think the registration requirement is questionable. If the city needs to check for a gas or water main or sewage leak they’re going to want to know if they’re going to run into any wild animals. Also, if they’re not registered, how will they check with your vet to make sure ongoing/regular vaccinations are given (if/when required).
The department wasn’t out of line. You can’t just take in wild animals without a permit or telling anyone. And once peanut bit the officer they had no choice. Brain tissue is the only fast way to test for rabies. It was that or risk the officer drying. I sure wouldn’t take the “owner’s” word and risk my life.
Anyways, peanuts owner was a shit head who got peanut killed
They were fine to take the pets but they should have been careful not to get bit. They should have informed the person before killing his pet. But you’re right ultimately I don’t have much sympathy for the guy since he had plenty of time to sort this out and not let it get to this point.
NOT get bit? Why didn’t they think of that!?
Squirrels tend not to be vectors for rabies. I got shredded by a squirrel my cat brought in that I thought was dead. The doctor shrugged me off and sent me home with some antibiotics.
Squirrels don’t consume rabies vectors, so they’d have to be bitten by a bat with rabies first if they have it.
Exactly and you can Also just get the treatment for rabies without the need to know if there even was exposure, its just a immunization with 3 vaccines and for a animal control officer, THEY SHOULD HAVE THAT BEFORE STARTING TO WORK!
Devil’s advocate. The “owner” of peanut was taking in wild animals without permits. Never bothered to even try… They find peanut who bites an officer. Now that officer can just take this weird dude’s word that peanut is not rabid, or he can wait till he’s symptomatic, at which point he’s dead. The only fast way to test for rabies is with brain tissue. It was either kill peanut or risk the officer drying of rabies.
Blame it all on the people who took in a wild animal without telling anyone and then exploited him for views
Don’t they usually just administer the rabies vaccine anyways just in case? As I understand it, even with the testing they’ll give the first dose because there can be bad effects if they wait for the test results before then.
Is the rabies vaccine still extremely painful and consisting of like 30 shots? Or is that outdated?
The squirrel was gonna die no matter what. It couldn’t be sent back to the idiot taking wild animals and running an unlicensed online zoo. And it couldn’t be returned to the wild. And it had already shown signs of aggression, so it probably wouldn’t be accepted by a zoo.
My cousin had one a few years back and said it was very painful. He didn’t end up needing more than one shot because the bat that got him tested negative, so I’m not sure how many doses it was in total.
I mean owning wild animals without a permit is a crime too. Dude wasn’t even taking Peanut to the vet cause he, get this, didn’t have a permit.
The problem is the other way around you should be able to visit the vet with a rescue animal regardless of a permit. And a permit for a squirrel is idiotic.
Squirrels are not demosticated. A squirrel will fuck you up dude. Its idiotic thinking people should be able to just cop whatever animal they want off the streets.
We had this discussion before, you hate animals with a passion and don’t understand basic logic.
Squirrels are hemerophile as I already proved to you. They live near us and seek our help when necessary, they aren’t wild like a Bear, Tiger or something like that, they are “wild” like straycats or mice.
And you also don’t know shit about rabies, they don’t just appear in a animal, they need to be infected themselves and they die in a few days to at max 2 weeks also it shows clear behavior when contagious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies
https://squirreluniversity.com/do-squirrels-remember-humans/
Get a life and stop trying to justify such actions.
Just bc you would rather cops be killing homeless people than squirrels that doesn’t mean we hate animals with a burning passion cx what a snowflake
Yeah you’re just being reactionary and putting words in my mouth. People are stupid, they will damage the populations they can. Thats why you need a permit to own wild animals so every asshair with half a brain cell doesnt take a squirrel home from the park. But go off on how I love to eat puppies for breakfast and kittens for second breakfast. Thats just daft. You are taking this one example that was awful, and applying it to every chance encounter with a ten year old at the park going “mommy can we keep it!?” No, you can’t. Cause you can’t tell what happened to a wild squirrel. Once again, had this guy went and got a permit after he used and exploited Peanut for personal wealth our poor Peanut would still be alive. But he didn’t cause libertarianism or some stupid shit.
Everyone is reactionary, a hater and what not all while you argue in favor of killing animals for fun…
Get lost.
You should join PETA! You seem like a good fit.
Save the animals!! Immediately euthanizes 40,000 cats
What?! Im against killing animals and especially against assheads like you or Peta.
It makes me sad that you think you’d lose a fight with a squirrel
It makes me sad you think a squirrel can’t seriously injure you, like there wasn’t any reason at all they are included on that permit list.
Im way more scared of my neighbors dogs than i am of the park squirrels. By this logic any animals that can harm you (almost all of them) should require a permit.
You should need one for nondomesticated animals. Go ahead though, go interact with wild animals. You’ll find out why this is the way it is pretty quick.
I have. Ive interacted with birds, insects, wild cats including the occasional bobcat, wild rodents, including squirrels, mice, rats, racoons, possums, armadillos, etc. I am very active with my local wildlife. And where I live, without a doubt, the second most dangerous thing here is pet dogs, only beaten out by other people. The dogs are so disproportionally dangerous that the third most dangerous thing here is drug overdose. I dont think i have ever heard of the wildlife fucking anyone up here. But two weeks ago my neighbor two houses down had to go get stitches due to being bitten by one of the other neighbors dogs after it got out. The dog got put down. This is i think the third time this has happened on my block this year. Different houses, different dogs each time. Dogs are a fucking menace to my neighborhood.
Context?
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.
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
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.
kept as a pet because when he (allegedly) tried to release the squirrel it turned up at his door sometime later injured again
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.
If the rest of those turned their crimes into social media hustles, the cops would have a much easier time.
