Beware of Attack Squirrels
Our very own Cuesta Park in Mountain View made it to the Mercury News today, but it isn’t for any good news. Rather, we have a problem - a Critter problem. According to the story, a 4 year old boy was attacked by a squirrel last week. Gosh, I used to love squirrels, but if you visit Cuesta Park, the whole area is swarmed with those critters, its scary. Charlotte and Cayenne should start training up for the Squirrel Deterrent Squad.
Taken from this article:
Posted on Wed, Sep. 27, 2006
Squirrel attacks plague Mtn. View park
RANGERS: DON’T FEED CRITTERS; ONE POUNCED ON BOY LAST WEEK
By Renee Koury
Mercury NewsThe signs went up in Mountain View’s Cuesta Park on Tuesday: Beware of Squirrels.
In the past three months, aggressive rodents have jumped into a child’s stroller and bitten at least three people.
Jennifer Packard’s 4-year-old son was their latest victim. As she unwrapped a muffin during a picnic last week, a brown tree squirrel pounced on her son, Andrew, biting and scratching as he ran screaming through the park, then hanging on as he rolled desperately in the grass.
“It was such a horror,” Packard recalled of the attack, which left her boy with a trail of red claw marks, a bite on his upper arm — and a regimen of painful rabies shots. “To hear your child screaming the way you’ve never heard before . . . it was just bone chilling.”
Now, Mountain View parks officials are fighting back. They’re seeking permission to set traps, ramping up ranger patrols and cracking down on visitors feeding the wildlife.
Mountain View Community Services Director David Muela said officials “have no reason to believe that the squirrels are rabid.” Instead, he said, their bold behavior toward humans apparently stems from years of being fed by park visitors.
As for Andrew, he’s still trying to make sense of the assault. He declared he’s never going into a park with trees ever again, his mother said, and he keeps telling everyone the squirrel was trying to eat him.
“My mommy said the squirrel sneaked down behind me and he was hugging me, but when he kissed me it was really a scratch,” he recalled Monday. “I fell down, and he fell on me, and . . . and he’s still on, and yeah, he was crazy. I don’t know what he was trying to do.”
Muela said the city is taking the attacks “very seriously. We want to make sure the park is a safe and enjoyable experience for people. It’s very unfortunate what happened to this little guy.”
The city already has ramped up park ranger patrols in recent months to enforce the no-feeding edict and monitor the creatures. The city also has installed squirrel-proof garbage cans to prevent foraging in the trash.
All of that may have made the animals more desperate.
At the park Tuesday evening, Ping Ping Kuo of Los Altos said she’s seen squirrels jump into strollers after parents leave food there while playing with their children. “They’re very aggressive,” she said.
But she hadn’t noticed the warning signs posted near where she and her 5-year-old son, Cole, were playing soccer. Close by, half a dozen squirrels chased each other and hunted around the picnic area for crumbs.
Andrew’s pediatrician and the county public health officer both said the unprovoked attack meant the squirrel might have rabies. The diminutive, wide-eyed preschooler has spent hours in the emergency room facing long waits and long needles.
It took four adults to hold him down while he got his first six shots at Stanford Hospital. Nurses gave him one tiny stuffed toy for each poke. Four more rounds of shots await him.
Santa Clara County’s public health spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said it’s rare that the department recommends a full rabies treatment for a bite victim. “But if the animal is behaving that strangely, it presents a higher risk” because unprovoked attacks can be an indicator of rabies.
Packard says she plans to seek reimbursement for Andrew’s medical expenses from the city, which has also offered to give Andrew a tour of the police and fire station.
“As a little kid, to be attacked by a squirrel and undergo this,” Packard said, “you just wonder if he’ll always have fear.”
Contact Renee Koury at rkoury@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7598.
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