Vicious California Squirrel Sends at Least 2 People to the ER

A “very mean squirrel” is terrorizing local residents of San Rafael, a city north of San Francisco. 

So far, this squirrel has attacked more than five people, two of whom had to receive emergency medical care, according to a flyer describing the incident. Experts say that the behavior is likely due to humans feeding the squirrel when it was younger. 

Not rabid, but still terrifying

Fortunately, squirrels rarely carry rabies, which was probably true for this particular squirrel. Regardless, the aggressive encounter has deeply shocked the animal’s unassuming victims. In an interview with ABC News, local resident Joan Heblack recounted how the squirrel suddenly jumped her during her morning walk.

“It came out of nowhere. I didn’t see him running up to me at all,” she said. “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.”

Marie Ayoob, who lives a few blocks from Heblack, told KRON4 that her husband was attacked by a squirrel that had been biting into their wooden fence.

Isable Campoy and her niece, Carmen, also encountered the squirrel while walking in a neighborhood. At first, understandably, the pair didn’t feel the need to be wary of the small animal.

“This is beautiful, now it’s following us, until she almost killed me,” Campoy recalled to ABC News. “Squirrel went from the floor tried to jump up to my face, I tried to protect my face, my arm was completely overcome by squirrel.”

Both Heblack and Campoy had to be transported to the emergency room to receive medical attention. 

Don’t feed the squirrels

Lisa Bloch with Marin Humane, an animal care nonprofit, told the Associated Press that this behavior has been seen before and is “almost always because someone has been feeding the animal.”

“Unfortunately, the squirrel is most likely approaching people and biting them because he was raised by people, or has been hand-fed by a humans, but is now on his own, uncertain about how to forage, and desperate for food,” a spokesperson for WildCare, a local wildlife hospital and advocacy organization, wrote to KRON4.

“If they associate people with food, they’re not afraid of them,” explained Vanessa Potter, a veterinarian at WildCare, to ABC News. “They will look for food. If they don’t get it, there can be frustrations. They can be territorial of their space.”

Local residents confirmed that the squirrel hadn’t been seen for several days. Bloch added that they did not receive any reports of squirrel attacks for a couple weeks. If they do, however, they will take measures to “remove” the animal from the neighborhood, she said.