Feral Squirrel Put Down After Attacking, Biting 18 People In Span Of Two Days

A grey squirrel that was living in a North Wales town was euthanized on Thursday, Dec. 29, after it terrorized the residents of the place by biting multiple individuals in the span of over two days.

The squirrel, named Stripe after the famed mogwai creature from the Christmas feature film "Gremlins," was discovered by 65-year-old woman Corrine Reynolds, an animal lover who had fed Stripe with food after finding the animal during the summer, The Guardian reported.

But that relationship between the two came to an end after Stripe started biting Reynolds’ hands as she was feeding it, drawing a bit of her blood and forcing her to entrap the animal in a cage while waiting for the proper authorities to handle it, according to USA Today.

“In the space of 48 hours he attacked 18 people,” she said. “He started attacking people who are just taking their recycling bags to the bin, and they are quite gruesome injuries.”

Among Stripe’s victims is Reynolds’ neighbor Scott Felton, who was smoking a cigarette when the animal attacked, forcing him to get a tetanus shot. Sheree Robinson was also attacked by the squirrel, though this time while she was taking out the garbage.

“He had five or six of my neighbors. He had me when collecting my recycling bags. He jumped out from behind my green bin. It had me good and proper. I’ve got teeth marks on the top and bottom of my finger. It latched on and I had to shake it off,” she said.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals picked up Stripe after Reynolds captured it. They issued a statement saying that the squirrel was put down due to a 2019 law that prevents them from being released into the wild.

“We were incredibly sad to have to put this squirrel to sleep but were left with no choice due to changes in legislation in 2019 making it illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild. We do not agree with this law and opposed it, but legally we have to comply,” they said in a statement.

The government has recommended people to not feed the squirrels and other wild animals they see to prevent a future incident from occurring.