# How can I help this little baby squirrel from this idiot?? Help..



## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

My husband has a friend from back in high school who is, I'm not kidding, the biggest idiot I have ever known personally in my entire life. He makes horrible life decisions that not only screw up his life but other people's lives and then treats it like a joke and/or complains about it like he's a victim of circumstance and not just a idiot who make terrible terrible decisions that he knows are wrong...

Anyway, this guy found a baby squirrel who is so young its eyes are still closed. I guess he found it last night and took it home. Somehow it survived and today he gave it a bath (and SUBMERGED IT, not just a towel bath.) and is feeding puppy replacement milk, and not even on a schedule. No heating pad, no research at all on care. He isn't even taking its rehabilition seriously and he will kill it. He also likely used flea meds on it too because it had fleas. I don't know if this little baby is still alive from when I found this all out this morning, but it's making me sick thinking about it..

We've tried talking to him about it and telling him it's illegal to keep any wildlife and he could get a $10,000 fine for it if we report him to Fish and Wildlife Services who will come to his home to investigate. He could even get jail time. We begged him to take it to the animal rehabilitation hospital that is literally only 15 mins away from his home. We told him how squirrels hit sexual maturity around 1 year old, so even if the baby DOES survive (unlikely) and ends up being a sweet little pet, it will almost 100% turn super hormonal and aggressive around 1 year old and bite and attack him and his other pets and literally be a wild animal, because it literally IS a wild animal. One of this guy's idiot friends even said "yeah I had a squirrel pet too that was great until it went wild and we released it back outside". It probably died because it never learned to take care of itself. The same thing would happen to this baby if it surives. It doesn't even have a cage or anything and this person's mother (he moved back in with his mother) is a cat hoarder (she calls herself a rescuer but never adopts out any of the cats she takes in) and I just know the little baby will die... We've told him all this but he just digs his heels in deeper and refuses and has told us basically to **** off and he'll do what he wants. We even said we were going to call Fish and Wildlife and report him but he still hasn't responded to it.

I feel so sad for the little baby... I don't know what to do.. I think at this point the baby will likely die either way...It's probably been damanged and suffered so much now that even if it gets taken to the rehab center, it might be put to sleep due to deprivation or similar. I'm so angry. Part of me REALLY wants to call and report him but is kind of scared if he does get the 10k fine, he might show up at our house with violent intentions thinking we just screwed him over for fun because he has no reasoning or critical thinking part in his brain, and for selfish reasons, I'm a little afraid of that possibility... But I also feel I can't just sit back and do nothing to try to really help the squirrel. I don't even know if it would be possible, but we might want to take the trip down to his house and insist he give us the baby and we will take it to the hospital. But he could easily just not let us in.

Ugh I just feel sick about this whole situation... What should I do???


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

Tell him you will report him or tell someone else to report him. If he can't use common sense with an animal this is the time you have to be firm.


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

The thing is we have been. We told him we are reporting him (we just haven't actually called yet). We even called the rehab hospital and told them about it and asked what we could do and did all that. We've basically got him pissed off to the point that even if we don't report him, the friendship might likely be over. He's just super insistant that he's going to do what he wants and he doesn't care about his friend or the squirrel and is mad that we think he can't take care of it (because he can't!!). So in his mind, we're the ones who are wrong and being mean to him. There's no reasoning with him. We've been really trying..


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Can you call someone at an animal shelter or wildlife rescue for support and advice? You should report him because otherwise you will think about it forever and regret doing nothing.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

If the friendship is over, good- you don't want that kind of friend in your life anyway. I say report him. Do you have any proof like text messages that he has the baby squirrel?


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## Kamira (Jul 15, 2015)

Sometimes you just need to do the right thing and call the game warden. I've recently had to turn in lots of people, one of them close friends, for taking fawns from the woods because they were 'abandoned' and, though I'm sad if the friendship takes damage, I would feel a lot worse if the fawn died because of inadequate care. Game wardens and the like can take the squirrel to a wildlife rehabilitator, where it will not be raised as a pet but as a wild animal and will be released. It is unfair and illegal to keep wildlife in a home. People don't realize that what they're doing is killing the animal. (since deer get aggressive during breeding season and are, in fact, strangely definitely able to kill a person, even if the fawn survives to adulthood (unlikely, unless the person has done lots of research), it has less fear of humans and, therefore, will just waltz up to hunters expecting a bottle.

Leave fawns where they are . . .


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Before anyone panics... my mom raised a baby squirrel back in the 1950's. It did fine and became an indoor/outdoor pet that lived in the oak tree behind the house and came inside for breakfast and to hang out with my mom. Squirrels were once considered pets... That said we once found a baby squirrel when I was a kid and it didn't make it... also booted out of the nest by mom, but we did try.

Once mom kicks a baby out of the nest it's functionally dead, usually there is a reason... anything your friend does to try and help it is a bonus. 

I'm not suggesting that your friend is doing anything right, nor that it's a good idea for anyone to try and rehab wildlife without some prior experience, nor that squirrels make for great pets.... But like I said, once mom kicks a baby out of the nest it's pretty much dead already... and it's hard to imagine your friend can actually make things worse.... Chances are good that there's a reason mom kicked the baby out of the nest and it might not even be viable. 

I do get the deer thing... and yes deer get dangerous, and there are places that rehab deer in certain areas. Maybe there's a place that might care for baby squirrels... but see if it's even an option before losing your cool... Maybe if you can tell your friend where he can take the squirrel or who will pick it up he might do it.

I once found a sick sea gull and called animal control, they came and I asked if they would help it, they told me they would put it to sleep as they don't treat sick birds and that it might be carrying some kind of illness... I might have been able to care for it, I was a better option than leaving it on the road side, and I thought animal control would do even better than me... boy was I wrong.

If you have more experience and can do better or know someone or some place that can and will help, maybe do the best you can to get the squirrel to a better place... but whatever you do, it's most likely a very long shot anyway.

Mother nature is cruel...

Best luck.


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

I'm sorry rat daddy but it sounds like you didn't even read my post at all.

Yes, there is a rehab center only about 15 mins away from him we told him to take it to that's very good and very well known and rehabs loads of squirrels during baby season each year. I also mentioned some of the stupid things already he's done to the squirrel (and that's just from posting about it on facebook, I have no idea what else he's done that he hasn't decided to make public).

At this point I would be very surprised if the poor thing is still alive or even able to be saved..


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## smoteymote (May 28, 2016)

Please please please report this man. What he's doing is animal abuse and is cruel. If you don't stop him now he's going to continue to think he can get away with it. He needs slapped with a physical punishment of some sort, be it fine, jail time, or whatever, because this will just continue to happen.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm not sure if it was 3 hours sleep or lack thereof, but I suppose I skimmed over the part about there being a squirrel rescue nearby... or that my old tired brain didn't wrap around there even being squirrel rescues nowadays...

And I got the part where he's doing everything wrong... and mostly I'd be surprised if the squirrel were still alive...

And mostly... I like squirrels. They did thousands of dollars in damage to my house and I live trapped them and relocated them.... but I have friends who shoot and eat them too. 

Strangely... I more or less classify your friend as being among the misguided and perhaps ignorant and maybe a little bit on the slow side given he has a rescue option... but not malicious. I grew up with plenty of kids who shot small animals and even larger animals for target practice and didn't even eat them. I think your friend is actually trying to help the squirrel and I don't think the squirrel had any real shot of survival if he just walked past it and left it be. So as much as I agree with everyone that he should be encouraged to take the squirrel to the rescue, I wouldn't necessarily classify him among the real jerks I've known. I reserve my real anger towards people who are cruel to animals on purpose and/or who just don't care...

I'm most likely older than some of the folks here and recall when things were very different.... I believe that well intentioned stupidity should be strongly discouraged, but having seen real animal cruelty up close and personal, this doesn't quite freak me out as much as it does some other people.


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