Since late November, a violently aggressive squirrel has left some Queens residents afraid to leave their homes.
“The squirrel didn’t care, it just wanted something it wanted blood,” 56-year-old Rego Park resident Micheline Frederick told the New York Post on Wednesday. “For a few days afterwards I would come out with a shovel, just in case, looking around.” Frederick compares her encounter with the bush-tailed predator to “an MMA cage match” one that she was losing. “It just basically runs up my leg and I’m like, ‘OK squirrel, hello what are you doing?’”
Frederick sustained eight bites and numerous scratches, including at least one on her neck. She warned neighbor Licia Wang, but Wang was still attacked. “I tried to shake it off but I can’t, you know because squirrels have claws, cling onto your winter jacket. There’s no way you can shake it off,” Wang told ABC 7.
If there’s one I thing I can say about 2020, it’s that the year has been…
squirrelly.
bites.
Royally.
It seems fitting, then, that in Queens, a community’s recently endured a series of vicious squirrel attacks.
As relayed by WABC, over the last month, at least five instances of the raging rodents ravaging residents have been reported.
Most of the havoc wreaked by the fidgety fiends has happened on 65th Drive near Fitchett Street, in the neighborhood of Rego Park.
In one case, a stark raving mad mammal maimed Micheline Frederick.
On December 21st, she was minding her own business when a bushy-tailed beast
Worried for the children, that s what most people are scared with the kids, Frederick said.
Some experts say the reason the squirrels might be approaching the humans is because people have been feeding them.
However, those who spoke with WABC-TV said they have not been feeding the animals or chasing them they have simply been minding their own business. When we leave the house, we have to carry mom s homemade pepper spray to make sure if it comes at us, we spray it, witness Anika Singh Sood said.
The NYC Department of Health released the following statement: The NYC Health Department received a complaint about an aggressive squirrel in Rego Park and advised the property owner to hire an New York State licensed trapper. Squirrels and many other small rodents are rarely found to be infected with rabies. If New Yorkers believe they have observed an animal infected with rabies, they should report it to 311.
Blood-thirsty squirrels are behind New York s latest crime-wave: Deranged rodents are attacking Queens residents for food -leaving them needing hospital treatment and fearing to step outside their homes
The wild attacks have occurred mostly in Rego Park, with the bulk of them happening on 65th Drive near Fitchett Street
One woman has even had to go to the emergency room, with others expressing their worry about even going outside since the attacks started in late November
The residents have been instructed to buy licensed traps in order to stop the attacks
Experts believe that the squirrels are acting out as a result of being fed by humans
Premier calls for scientific facts in ractopamine debate
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Deliberations on ractopamine must be based on scientific evidence, not rumors, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
“Some people hide their spreading of rumors and disinformation behind free speech, but that is wrong,” Su told a session of the Legislative Yuan.
Su made the remarks following the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) expression of support for psychiatrist Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩).
In media interviews earlier this week, Su Wei-shuo said: “The toxic effect of ractopamine is 250 times that of an ecstasy [MDMA] pill.”
When a nation allows the importation of products with traces of ractopamine, its “entire ecosystem will become filled with ractopamine, even the air, so that people will inhale it just by breathing,” Su Wei-shuo told reporters.