Peanut, who has amassed more than half a million Instagram followers, was euthanized by officials to be tested for rabies.
Peanut, the Instagram-famous squirrel that was seized from its owner’s home Wednesday, has been euthanized by New York state officials.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took Peanut, as well as a raccoon named Fred, on Wednesday after the agency learned the animals were “sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies," it said in a joint statement with the Chemung County Department of Health.
Both Peanut and Fred were euthanized to test for rabies, the statement said. It was unclear when the animals were euthanized.
Unfortunately the animal bit a person, so they had no real choice in the matter. There is no reliable way to test for rabies without killing the animal, and vaccines are not guaranteed to prevent spreading infection.
This is such fucking bullshit, so you corner an animal, it bites you, then you shoot the animal because it bit you?
I hope you never own or work with animals.
Do you fucking know what rabies is
Yes, and I also know that cats are more likely to carry it than squirrels, but I don’t see the cops breaking down cat owners doors.
Yeah, which is why I would have ppe to not get bit.
Ahhh yes, the magical PPE that never fails.
If your ppe failed, you’re not using it right. If you were using it right, it wasnt adequate.
It’s a squirrel, not a monster dog.
I can tell you never worked in safety or really gave this any thought.
PPE is the last resort. Which means they already failed.
No, you surgically remove the animal’s brain tissue to test for rabies and ascertain whether more serious treatment is required for the bitten. It should also be noted that the animals were never vaccinated themselves, because even if a provider were in the area the man with the animals was never certified as a rescue and rehab after seven years.
Handing over the animals safely and with minimal harm would be the handlers responsibility, the inspector being bitten is the fault of the handler.
What? They fucking swat raided the place and turned house upside down, what kind of safely handling option are you talking about
See clearly we read different articles
Both these animals bit someone?
AFAIK no, just the squirrel is confirmed, if I were in charge I would have quarantined Fred to look for signs of sickness and then shipping it to a proper rescue.
Unfortunately quarantine and observation isn’t effective as a testing strategy for animals, the disease can progress at different rates and it’s possible for infected animals to show no symptoms. As rabies can’t be treated after symptoms start showing, they can’t take the time to do this.
Well yeah I’m sure the rescue would quarantine him even longer, I just wanted to reduce handling of a potentially sick animal to a minimum. Plus, by then, results on the squirrel would have come back and give us another hint on the possibility of Fred being sick.
Sadly the only way to know for sure is to test brain tissue, including in people, so there’s no way to be certain without killing the potentially infected animal/person.
There are a bunch of tests they can do for people that can potentially identify rabies (lumbar puncture, CT and MRI scans, skin biopsy, antibody test) but apparently it can still be easily missed even with all of these tests so they aren’t enough for an accurate diagnoses.