They're Nuts
When I hear people say they’d like to have a squirrel as a pet, I think that (1) either they are sadistic, or (2) they just haven’t been in close quarters with an adult squirrel.
The squirrels that are nearing release into the wild from the rehab center are housed in an outdoor enclosure with a row of cages on either side of the walkway. Entering that enclosure with a tray of food is a little like entering a cellblock in a maximum security prison. The squirrels bounce off the walls. They wrap their tiny paws around the wires and seem to leer. They chatter and bicker. They fight over food. They bite.
Squirrels, like other wildlife, aren’t meant to be kept as pets. In North Carolina, it’s illegal to do so. Still, we’ve received squirrels at the rehab center that people have kept until they became ill from improper diets and mishandling. Some have metabolic bone disease from a lack of calcium in their diet and have to be handled carefully so their bones don’t break. One squirrel had to have a hind leg amputated after a teenage boy shot into a nest hoping to bring down a squirrel as a pet for his girlfriend.
Photographs of a squirrel named Finnegan have been circulating on the Internet. Perhaps you’ve seen them: Finnegan sitting on a woman’s shoulder or sleeping with a litter of puppies. The woman intends to release Finnegan into the wild. Chances are, Finnegan won’t survive. He doesn’t know that humans can be his enemy or that another dog could snap his neck. Sometimes the best thing we can do for wild animals is to teach them to fear the things that could get them killed, instead of trying to alter the survival instincts nature gave them