Some California residents are on high alert after a series of squirrel attacks have sent people to the emergency room.
Neighbors in San Rafael, Calif., told ABC7 on Monday, Sept. 22, that they were attacked by a local squirrel. The city is about an hour north of San Francisco.
“It clamped onto my leg. The tail was flying up here. I was like, ‘Get it off me, get off me!’ I didn’t want to touch it,” said Joan Heblack, who was taking a morning walk in Lucas Valley when the incident happened.
Heblack added that the squirrel “came out of nowhere.”
Even though the squirrel is small, it caused serious damage to her leg by sinking its claws into her skin. Photos ABC7 shared showed the injuries.
She said the experience was “very scary” as she tried to figure out how to free herself from the animal.
At least five attacks have been reported, and the same gold-brown squirrel is believed to be responsible for all of them. Flyers posted in the area warn, “THIS IS NOT A JOKE.”
Another San Rafael resident, Isabel Campoy, told ABC7 that she and her niece Carmen were attacked by the squirrel while outdoors in the same area. Campoy said the incident is making it hard for them to enjoy their neighborhood.
“This is beautiful, now it’s following us, until she almost killed me,” Campoy said.
Campoy’s injuries were more severe than Heblack’s. ABC7 showed footage of several gashes on her arm that were still healing.
“The squirrel went from the floor and tried to jump up at my face. I tried to protect my face, my arm was completely scratched by the squirrel,” Campoy said. “Finally it jumped off, by then I was covered in blood. I ran to the emergency room.”
Carmen, Campoy’s niece, said she was also shocked by the amount of blood caused by the squirrel and its claws.
Vanessa Potter from WildCare in San Rafael told ABC7 that attacks like these are “not unheard of” and added that rabies is probably not a factor.
She recommends being careful when feeding wild animals because it can cause them to approach humans without fear.
“If they associate people with food, they’re not afraid of them. They will look for food. If they don’t get it, there can be frustrations. They can be territorial of their space,” Potter said.
Back in 2021, about 15 people were attacked and injured by a grey squirrel in Buckley, Flintshire, over just two days, as BBC reported. The squirrel — nicknamed Stripe, after the Gremlins character — was later captured, examined by a vet, and euthanized.
A year earlier, five people in one neighborhood of Queens, New York, were victims of squirrel attacks, according to WABC. One witness said at the time, “When we leave the house, we have to carry mom’s homemade pepper spray to make sure if it comes at us, we spray it.”
