'Blood everywhere': Shocking attacks on residents by 'aggressive' squirrels
WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: Locals in the New York City neighbourhood of Queens are too frightened to leave their homes after a spate of violent animal attacks have left residents bloodied and bruised.
“We’re wrestling in the snow and there’s blood everywhere… eventually, it just stopped and there I was a big bloody mess,” Micheline Frederick told CBS.
“This was an MMA cage match and I lost.”
It’s hard to believe the Queens resident is describing an attack by a squirrel, but Ms Frederick said it wasn’t the first time it had happened and she had security footage to prove it.
“You hear someone has been bitten by a squirrel, you’re like, ‘Okay, you got a little nib, what’s the deal?’” she shrugged as she shared graphic photos of the aftermath with media.
In one photo her hand is dripping with blood as she reaches for the back of her head after a squirrel latched onto her and refused to let go.
The second photo shows the snow outside of her front porch in Rego Park stained with blood from the incident.
‘Aggressively going after people’
At least six of Ms Frederick’s neighbours have also reported encounters with aggressive squirrels.
Vinati Singh said she was attempting to film one of the adorable rodents perched on her mailbox when it suddenly pounced at her.
“These squirrels are aggressively going after people,” Ms Singh explained to CBS.
Another neighbour also told the outlet about a squirrel that bit her, unprovoked, as she was walking home.
The traumatised residents said the attacks had taken place over the last week-and-a-half and although they reported the incidents, the animals remain running wild.
The residents even hired a state-licensed trapper to help them, but so far none of the traps had successfully caught any squirrels.
“I’m a little surprised that the city is not taking it a little more seriously considering how many people have been attacked,” Ms Singh told CBS.
Despite the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) advising small rodents like squirrels rarely are found to have rabies, the residents say the squirrel’s aggressive behaviour is concerning and they will be seeking medical treatment for rabies.
According to NYC Health, no squirrels have tested positive to rabies in the area since 2010.
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