SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KRON) — Multiple residents of San Rafael, Calif., say aggressive squirrels are terrorizing the neighborhood, sometimes leaving victims with nasty bites or scratches.
“I was just walking along, and suddenly, there’s a squirrel attached to my thigh. Just clomped on to my thigh,” Joan Heblack, who lives in the Lucas Valley neighborhood, told Nexstar’s KRON. “I look down and I was like, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘Get off, get off!’ I was trying to brush him off. And he was just clinging more and biting.”
Heblack was ultimately able to detach the squirrel and go seek medical attention. But neighbors nearby now say they’re hesitant to go outside.
A few doors down from Heblack, another resident said her husband was attacked by a squirrel when he tried to stop it from biting into his wooden fence on Friday.
“She took a big chunk of the wood and we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s hungry or something,'” Marie Ayoob told KRON. “Joe, my husband, took off his cap and hit it so it could go away. Well, she turned around and just jumped on his head.”
Joe suffered a scratch behind his ear, Ayoob said. And five more of her neighbors have also suffered squirrel attacks in recent weeks, according to the couple.
Flyers now appear across the neighborhood warning about the squirrel attacks, as well as the potential injuries the animals can cause with their teeth and claws. (“Several have gone to the ER” for severe lacerations, a message on the flyer alleges.) The posters describe the offending animal as “a very mean squirrel” that “comes out of nowhere.”
“This is not a joke,” the posters warn.
WildCare is a wildlife hospital, nature education center, and wildlife advocacy organization in Marin County. A WildCare spokesperson said aggressive behavior is almost always the result of squirrels being fed by humans.
“WildCare has received numerous calls about a squirrel attacking residents in the Lucas Valley neighborhood of San Rafael. Unfortunately, the squirrel is most likely approaching people and biting them because he was raised by people, or has been hand-fed by a human, but is now on his own, uncertain about how to forage, and desperate for food. Squirrels are naturally shy animals,” the spokesperson wrote.
The wildlife hospital is currently caring for 51 baby squirrels.
“Especially right now, when the local tree squirrels are having their second brood of babies for the summer, it’s common for baby squirrels to end up on the ground. People sometimes find fallen baby squirrels, and decide to keep them and raise them themselves. There are many reasons doing this is a bad idea,” the spokesperson wrote.
A baby squirrel that is raised by humans doesn’t understand why some people feed it, and other people don’t, the agency said.
WildCare frequently sees squirrels brought in by people who attempted to raise them as babies and later realized how difficult it is to do. San Rafael’s aggressive squirrel may have escaped from well-intentioned people, or was released once it became too wild and “squirrely,” according to WildCare.
“The lesson here is don’t feed wildlife, and always bring orphaned baby animals to WildCare for care. We make sure they remain wild,” the spokesperson told KRON.
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