Peanut, who has amassed more than half a million Instagram followers, was euthanized by officials to be tested for rabies.

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.

  • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    204·
    1 day ago

    OK, we have very serious, and honestly, pants-shittingly paranoid responses to rabies for a really good fucking reason:

    If you show symptoms, you are dead. Period. And not a nice death.

    When I was young, you saw a wild dog, lot of people would reach for their rifle, it was just their reflex.

    Maybe we have to update the laws, but they are there for a reason, and one of those reasons is why we don’t have too many rabies deaths in this country, and we are still considered one of the countries with high risk of rabies.

    Tl;Dr - don’t fuck with rabies.

    • joel_feila@lemmy.world
      112·
      1 day ago

      They put the animals in isolation and re turn them when they are cleared. I know they can that’s what happened to my neighbor’s dog after it bit someone.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
        41·
        17 hours ago

        Well, a dog is a lower risk animal than wildlife. This was a poorly socialized squirrel that bit someone, and had potentially been in contact with hundreds of other animals at an animal sanctuary. The squirrel and the raccoon aren’t legally pets in NY, and no effort was made to make them legal educational animals. From the standpoint of public health policy, what went down was pretty much by-the-books. The only way to test for rabies is to run tests on brain tissue. There isn’t a “famous TikTok Animal” exception to the rules that protect us from rabies outbreaks.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        144·
        23 hours ago

        They do that for dogs, cats and ferrets.

        Dogs, cats and ferrets

        Following rabies exposure, unvaccinated dogs, cats, and ferrets should be euthanized since no licensed biologics can ensure that they do not develop rabies. If the owner declines, dogs and cats need a strict 4-month quarantine, and ferrets need strict 6-month quarantine. They also need immediate rabies vaccination. Demonstrating an adequate serological response to vaccination may result in health officials reducing the quarantine period. Quarantine should be conducted in a secure facility that ensures people and other animals do not become exposed.

        Other mammals

        Other mammals should be euthanized immediately.

        https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/hcp/veterinarians/index.html

        We do not know how long rabies incubates in all animals, and they do NOT FUCK AROUND WITH THIS!!!

        I spoke to vets, their faces go to stone when rabies exposure seriously comes up, this is not a disease, it is a literal nightmare, the worst zombie scenario you can imagine made reality.

        It tears apart your mind completely and there is no treatment at all. Your family gets to watch.

        This is just nothing to fuck with.