The residents of San Rafael, California, have been traumatized by some vicious wildlife. While cougars, coyotes, or great white sharks would be viable guesses for the culprit, this time it was a less formidable predator.
The aggressor is a squirrel. The ferocious rodent has already sent two women to the emergency room, and someone in town was so worried about the creature, they hung posters warning of the danger.
“ATTACK SQUIRREL BEWARE!” one reads (with significantly more exclamation marks). “THIS IS NOT A JOKE MORE THAN 5 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED BY A VERY MEAN SQUIRREL OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS.”
Isabel Campoy and her niece Carmen Campoy were taking a walk when they were assaulted by the tiny fiend, according to ABC 7.
“She almost killed me,” Isabel recounts. “The squirrel went from the floor and tried to jump up to my face, I tried to protect my face, my arm was completely overcome by the squirrel. Finally it jumped off, by then I was full of blood, I ran to the emergency room.”
During the interview, Campoy showed the red scratches on her arm. Joan Heblack experienced something similar in the same area, though she didn’t see the rodent coming.
“It clamped onto my leg. The tail was flying up here. I was like, ‘Get it off me, get off me!’ I didn’t want to touch it,” Heblack explained. “Very scary. How do you get a squirrel attached to your leg off?” The squirrel clawed and bit her, causing enough damage to send her to the emergency room, too.
According to KTVU, Marin Humane animal shelter also received reports of two attacks, one on September 13 and one on September 14. Details of the attack align with the incidents involving Campoy and Heblack, though their names weren’t mentioned.
Lisa Bloch, director of marketing and communications for Marin Humane, suggests the same squirrel was involved in both reported attacks. Both happened in almost the same place and it had a particular coloring, she said. The attacker has a caramel-like color or a golden color, which is a bit less common among the rodents.
Over five people have been assaulted, according to a poster.
The good news is that, according to Bloch, squirrels in the area do not transmit rabies. The bad news is that these attacks are probably due to humans feeding squirrels.
“If they associate people with food, they’re not afraid of them. They will look for food. If they don’t get it, there can be frustrations. They can be territorial of their space,” explained Vanessa Potter from San Rafael’s wildlife rescue service WildCare.
Moral of the story? The “do not feed wildlife” signs are there for a reason.
