Posted on 04/08/2011 6:13:36 PM PDT by fuzzybutt
“That is why if he had the IQ of a coal bucket he would have turned a trash can down over the little thing, a rabid animals foams at the mouth and staggers, they also tend to try and bit there own tails, this little fellow was just to little to know that some humans are more animal than he is.”
I call BS on this. Skunks, raccoons and a number of other animals can carry rabies and not show any outward signs that it is infected. I say that it is better to be safe than sorry. I put people above animals every time. Especially animals that are just rats with good PR.
Well you could have just jumped on the little fellow and stomped him to death, if that would have gotten you off. But a plastic trash can and a piece of cardboard would have removed the little fellow until the swat unit got there.
Because I have lived in the country all of my life and make it a matter of safety to know the creatures that I may have to interact with.
http://rabies.emedtv.com/rabies/rabies-and-squirrels.html
Bzzzzt. Wrong: http://thegazette.com/2009/08/11/iowa-city-police-issue-warning-after-rabid-squirrel-bites-person/ One of many stories I found quite easily...
I think your missed at moveon.org.
I don’t get off on hurting animals, but I’m also not ignorant enough to think that an animal is just trying to be my friend when it is running at me. Face it. You just hate cops and are looking for any excuse to argue about this.
By the way. I don’t hunt and have only once killed an animal in my life. I didn’t like it one bit. But I would kill an animal if I felt it could or would harm a human.
You are just showing what a fool you are.
I could be wrong but I think it is year around in CO with a small game license. I stopped hunting and fishing some time ago so I haven’t kept up with the regs. I haven’t stopped cooking or eating though so if the freezer gets crowded...
Well, I suppose he could have gone to the baton...
Nice try, but the claim wasn’t that squirrels can’t be rabid. I said that squirrels have never been known to transmit rabies to humans.
Raccoons, dogs, coyotes and cats have all been known to transmit rabies to humans, but I still have never heard of a squirrel transmitting it.
Some of the replies in this thread are nuts. The squirrel was a disease threat to the children. And to the cop.
And skunks! Don’t forget skunks ASB!
Really? Could you share them? I searched and found several sites that said only two cases of rabies transmitted by squirrels have ever been recorded in the U.S. The CDC lists all diseases associated with squirrels and rabies isn't on it.
Lots of qualifiers in that article. See my #64. Also, rabbies are BAD. Untreated rabbies are almost 100% fatal (only 6 people are know to have survived symptomatic rabbies without treatment in the US. Ever.). Treatment is better than it used to be, but still no fun and carries it’s own risks.
In view of al that, a little pepper spray is definitely acceptable. In addition, the squirrel will probably fear people now, which might increase its lifespan come hunting season.
I live in a forest and I’ve yet to be approached by a squirrel.
To quote from your source:
Rabies and Squirrels: An Overview
Squirrels are almost never found to be infected with the rabies virus. Squirrels also have not been known to cause rabies in humans within the United States. Bites from a squirrel are not considered a risk for rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in an unusual manner, and rabies is widespread in the area.
******************************************************
Being approached by a baby squirrel would be very unusual to me.
Speaking of unusual, we had a very large whitetail doe in our neighborhood that had been someone’s pet and abandoned near our home. Used to scare the hell out of me when she’d come up quietly and nudge my back, wanting to have her ears scratched. Wild animals don’t do that, but then she had been cared and loved by someone.
She is no longer around (probably in someone’s freezer) and I no longer have deer sneaking up on me wanting to be pet.
Wait... who made you the judge of the acceptable “bushel basket ratio?” I can find far more stories involving soldiers than you can of police. Does that then implicate your “bushel basket ratio” or is the ratio “fuzzy” and mailable based on the profession involved? Did it ever occur to you that these stories make the news because the media wants to make them news? How many stories does the media print regarding your local plumbers, nail bangers, bankers, stock brokers, or other professions?
There are 308 MILLION people in this country, and well over a million law enforcement officers in the United States. The fact that you can troll officer.com or an RSS feed from copwatch that collects stories from all over the web (many of which are misreported or spun) doesn’t prove your thesis.
You simply buy the marxist media spin, and bow before your media overlords like a good little puppet. Carry the water of the commies. I’m sure they’ll have a job for you in the politburo.
At least could you attempt to write a coherent sentence? FYI, Crack kills.
Just googled a few combinations of the relevant words. One poster did point out that the story I linked was about rabid squirels, not people getting rabbies from squirrels. Fair enough. Maybe the other articles were similar (not going to bother looking again, I’ll concede the point).
Still think the cop using non-lethal means here was justified. After all, squirrels can do a lot of damage with those claws. Know because one of my friend’s dumber dogs was stupid enough to corner one. Squirrel made a mess of the dog’s face...
Call out the swat team, using a droid, to much trouble to type on a little little, key pad, and even a slow person like yourself can understand it. Now go stomp some little animal, and keep a close eye on the little old lady in the wheel chair, she may be getting ready to make a run for it.
I am making this statement from a VERY educated point of reference. Squirrels who behave in this manner are dangerous, despite their cuteness and small size.
I once rescued a squirrel who was acting agressively towards my dogs. I padded my hands by wrapping them in my jacket and picked up the squirrel before the dogs could dispatch it. After biting me severely in several places on my arm, the squirrel bit through my jacket, into my finger and refused to let go. I had to strangle the little varmint and pry its teeth out of my finger. He had bitten all the way through one of them. After going to the emergency room, I had to drive the squirrel carcass fifty miles to a diagnostic center where it could be tested for rabies, which it fortunately didn’t have.
The officer acted well in spraying the animal. He should have killed it. Any wild animal that acts agressively towards humans has something wrong with it. Instead of crying your eyes out for an animal, you should be commending the officer for preventing what could have been a very serious danger to those kids.
If the squirrel had bitten one of the children and gotten away, they would have had to undergo a painful series of rabies injections just to have been on the safe side.
It’s a sad turn of events when society puts animal welfare above and beyond that of humankind.
To follow up: Did another search and found several articles (in first 3 pages via yahoo) of people getting rabbies shots after a squirrel bite. Rabbies shots are no joke. That said, also found many govt and medical sites that said rabbies shots are NOT indicated for a squirrel bite.
Can’t blame the cop for not being a doc or animal expert. If the choice is between a kid going through rabbies shots and pepper spraying a squirrel, that’s an easy choice...
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