Gadling

Hey! You've got a nice squirrel!:-)

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Here's a lead for a good follow-up story regarding the Stowaway Squirrel that invaded Hawaii. Evidently, an eastern gray squirrel (S.carolinensis) placed so much fear in the hearts of both state and federal government officials, the taskforce ordered the squirrel killed and an autopsy performed.

The results of the autopsy were released today, February 16th. and suprisingly the squirrel tested negative for rabies.

Of course both the State of Hawaii and the United States Federal Government knew prior to ordering the taskforce to carry out the execution, that the reults would be negative.

The reason it was already known that the rabies test would be negative is: There is no record or evidence anywhere in the United States of any squirrel ever infecting a human with rabies. Neither are squirrels known to pass rabies on to any other living creature. It just doesn't happen. One of God's little mysteries.

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Why the heck did they kill it? If they'd just quarantined it a week or so, they'd know it wasn't carrying rabies and could have set it free in a wooded area away from planes. Geez.

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Rodents can't carry rabies.

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WRONG ANSWER......ANY MAMMAL CAN CARRY RABIES, EVEN THOUGH IT'S RARE IN SOME SPECIES!!!

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Hello, Squirrels don't carry rabies. Someone needs to tell them instead of killing the poor little animals.
Next time call the Health Department. They're smarter than you are.

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You have to take precautions when coming into contact with any type of creature, even your own pets. That's why they get shots. Quarantining the squirrel would not have been an option because if it had rabies, then everyone who was on the plane would have had to make sure to get medical treatment and a clean bill of health from their own doctors. I don't like the fact that the squirrel was killed, but I understand the reasoning. By the way squirrels can carry the bubonic plague.

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Yep that's what Hawaii needs: another invasive foreign species released into the already severely altered habitats there, and one of the most destructive rodent species there is to boot.

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Its an invasive species in Hawaii. There are no squirrels here that i know of and they don't invite new species of anything ever since the whole, " Hay lets use mongoose to kill the rats!" deal. Kind of funny because rats are nocturnal and mongoose are not. Smart "officials" we have here.

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F-ing idiots! Squirrels DO NOT CARRY RABIES. How sad that the poor little thing was butchered needlessly. This breaks my heart. My family are squirrel-lovers. They are very friendly and trusting little animals.

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Give me a break! When is the last time you heard of a squirrel causing bubonic plague? Also, killing the squirrel and testing it for rabies was very stupid. A dead animal may test negative for rabies ... which means nothing. If the disease is incubating, it would not show up as positive for several days to several weeks. It would have been wiser to keep the animal alive. Then again, non of this would make any difference because SQUIRRELS DO NOT CARRY RABIES.

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YO, ANIMAL LOVERS, GET A FREAKING LIFE.
do you know most animals, dogs, cats, gerbals, gold fish, hamsters, ect all taste good after thet have been par-boiled and grilled?

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Now that AA has "EXTERMINATED" a world reknown world traveler or Varmint as they called him...by the way his name was Arnold the squirell....he was obviously better known as secret agent 008..highly trained,experienced, traveled and technically adept at scaling tall buildings in a single leap, flying through the air and keeping our country safe from the TSA and a lot of it's thieving, lazy, and leeching of the world passengers employees...but acolades to AA for coming to the supposed rescue of our country by killing off a quiet cute little squirell...just one more of our "God's" creatures ..GONE..by some stupid corporations decision.....Right...It was just a squirell....a rodent..a "Varmint"...Screw American Airlines....Let's all BOYCOTT the airline..let's see what they think about that....There could have been a better decision to get the squirell off the plane out of the wiring (which could have been a real problem) but in today's world everything is getting out of hand....so why not this? Enough is Enough people....

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I believe there was a issue of the bubonic plague with squirrels and praire dogs ( previously named the barking squirrel by Lewis & Clark) which is a type of ground squirrel in the Denver, CO area.

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Makes me sick to hear they killed the squirrel & why to make it easier on them to get the flight going? What heartless idiots we have running things. Guess the squirrel had no tits & ass to flash the pilot!! Poor little guy.

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