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I don't think the government needed to get involved. If this guy was hoarding animals then okay. He had a squirrel and the gov't killed it? Thank you gov't I really feel safer now knowing you killed this guy's squirrel.

Foolproof**

You can put the animals in isolation

I feel like I’m going nuts, is nobody on lemmy actually reading this article? This dude turbo sucked.

Longo brought Peanut him home, ultimately caring for the squirrel for eight months before trying to release it back into the wild. He said Peanut returned to his porch a day and a half later with a broken bone sticking out of its tail, at which point Longo determined Peanut couldn't survive in the wild alone and instead would move in with him.

Didn’t get him veterinary care though, because that would have resulted in his Cool Pet being taken away. What’s wrong with a little risk of sepsis and zero pain control for a serious injury if someone really, really wants to be a special boy??

A wildlife rehabilitator (Nessie) on TikTok pointed out that his squirrel and his raccoon would not have had access to veterinary care (ie, vaccination for rabies).

She also pointed out that showcasing wildlife in social media is currently unregulated - in person exhibitions requiring an expensive license to get. This is a bit of a loophole, and what that guy did is likely to get that loophole closed up, and impact sanctuaries that do operate within the current law while using social media platforms to fundraise.

Also, personally, the way he showcased the animals just seemed inappropriate - squirrels eating human food just seems problematic. Iirc he ran a domestic rescue, not a wildlife rescue, which is a different skill set. Wildlife rescuers avoid interacting with animals as much as possible. Animals aren’t toys and don’t have the same kinds of needs we do, and the fact they are cute shouldn’t complicate our emotions.

Oh man I don't enjoy being that guy right now but for the love of all, It's CUSTOMERS. Costumers are people who work in dress-up.

I've only seen this in the past few years, but it's become such a common mistake. I don't understand it.

Sorry, I mean you're making a salient point about the lack of a license and all. Even so, if he's been caring for the squirrel domestically for seven years, where do they think the supposed rabies would have come from? It doesn't just manifest.

TBH this really shouldn't radicalize you. This is what people are supposed to do when an animal bites somebody. The thing that was done incorrectly was creating a situation where an animal could bite a person.

Republicans. Unless they want a squirrel.

No, the cruelty is the point. The kind of people who made this happen have common sense just like the rest of us, that 7-year-old squirrel didn't have rabies. They refuse to make exceptions or use common sense because they specifically want to hurt others.

full repariations

And surely such reparations would take into account future lost revenue, as they would be expected to it this were a regular person against a corporation.

Surely.

There were no other options, imo. The inspector who was bitten likely did get a vaccine immediately, but vaccines are not guaranteed to work. There is no reliable way to test an animal for rabies without killing it.

These rules exist to help people and animals, and law enforcement followed them all to the letter.

Squirrels don't normally carry rabies.

While not impossible, it's actually considered near impossible by experts. For whatever reason, smaller mammals seem to simply not be affected by rabies.