Police use pepper spray on a baby squirrel

[Smooth Operator]

Obviously should have pepper sprayed the kids, would have been a far more useful lesson.

 

[Majorian]

He did the right thing, he was there when it happened and was protecting the children and himself from a very possible rabies infection while sparing the life of the animal.

Have you not read anything that's been posted in this thread? The animal did not have rabies, the likelihood of it having rabies (much less transmitting it) was pretty much nonexistent, and if the officer had done his due diligence and asked Animal Control first, they would have told him so. If he was concerned, all he had to do was tell the teachers to get the kids away from the area (or even just drop an empty cardboard box over it!) and wait for Animal Control to arrive. Pepper spray is caustic on skin - it burns like hell. There's no way the cop didn't cause the squirrel a lot of unnecessary pain. That's animal cruelty, and it deserves to be called out.

Animal control WAS contacted.

By the school, yes. Clearly it wasn't the officer who did it; otherwise he would have known that squirrels don't give people rabies.

I'd rather a squirrel get maced then take the risk of getting rabies (no matter how small that risk is), or some other disease the little bugger could be carrying.

This is a false dichotomy. There were more options than just "allow the animal to give kids rabies," or "pepper spray it." Ie: trap it in a cardboard box, or tell the teachers to get the kids out of that part of the school, or even just nudging it away with your boot. Pepper spraying it and causing it a lot of needless pain is pretty much the definition of inhumane and cruel. Them's the facts.

I'm glad the squirrel is okay; that doesn't concern me as much, however, as how this fits into the overall pattern of police brutality. What kinds of out-and-out dumb people are we as a society authorizing to use deadly force?

And "get over it"? Really? You realize you're the one making the effort to post here. If this discussion is so onerous, you don't have to keep participating in it.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

He did the right thing, he was there when it happened and was protecting the children and himself from a very possible rabies infection while sparing the life of the animal.

Have you not read anything that's been posted in this thread? The animal did not have rabies, the likelihood of it having rabies (much less transmitting it) was pretty much nonexistent, and if the officer had done his due diligence and asked Animal Control first, they would have told him so. If he was concerned, all he had to do was tell the teachers to get the kids away from the area (or even just drop an empty cardboard box over it!) and wait for Animal Control to arrive. Pepper spray is caustic on skin - it burns like hell. There's no way the cop didn't cause the squirrel a lot of unnecessary pain. That's animal cruelty, and it deserves to be called out.

It's bahavior was erradic and was confronting, those are very likely indications of rabies.
If he had asked them first it could have bitten someone and someone could have been infected.
He would have gone to get a bos somewhere which would have taken time and someone could have been infected in the mean time.

He didn't do it for personal entertainment or gratification, he did it to protect the children.
Better safe than sorry.
He did the right thing.

 

[Majorian]

It's bahavior was erradic and was confronting, those are very likely indications of rabies.

No, they're really not indications of anything of the sort. They're indications of a squirrel that's used to humans and being fed by them. They have them all over LA, and I'm sure there's plenty of them in other cities and towns as well.

If he had asked them first it could have bitten someone and someone could have been infected.
He would have gone to get a bos somewhere which would have taken time and someone could have been infected in the mean time.

Or he could have asked someone to, I dunno. Get one for him while he kept his eye on the scary evil baby squirrel?

You're operating under the same false dichotomy as Baby Tea, ie: that the only two options were "let the scary death-squirrel run amok," or "pepper spray it and cause it lots of pain." Those were hardly the only two options.