People are just starting to wake up to the fact that squirrels, the squirrels that had been happily living amongst us, are becoming increasingly violent and perhaps even evil. An examination of the global news media yields an alarming number of reports; some of the attacks are described as “VICIOUS”.

American news channel CBS5 ran this report on a gang of violent squirrels in Cuesta Park in California. The latest victim was four-year-old Hayley Allard. (There is a great video clip on this website, I wanted to import it to this blog but was thwarted, watch it.)

Squirrels in Cuesta Park have attacked at least 20 people since last spring. Hayley had to get a tetanus shot.

The Swindon Advertiser ran this report of a VICIOUS squirrel attack on a small boy and his mum. The Mum received wounds:

“There was blood everywhere all down my arms and over my clothes”

And of course there is the now infamous and widely reported case of the Russian squirrels killing and devouring a stray dog in December 05. This blog reported it as did the BBC among other organisations.

USA today posted this report in January 06. A postal worker in a place called Oil City Pa. was attacked.

"It was a freak thing. It was traumatic," Dougherty told The Derrick in Oil City. "I saw it there on the porch, put the mail in the box and turned to walk away and it jumped on me."

An ambulance took Dougherty to the hospital, where she was treated for cuts and scratches. The squirrel was killed with a BB gun and sent to a lab to be tested for rabies.

A quick search of Blogland seems to confirm the phenomenon with a growing body of anecdotal evidence.

An American called John Miglautsch was attacked while hunting.

"He took off, leaping right up at my face".

Blog.co.uk's Janey Godley,

“Then they rushed towards my legs and jumped around looking at me as if saying, ‘O.K. Fatty where are the nuts and raisins’?”

An American Cyclist,

". . . a KS [Killer Squirrel] darted straight out from the side of the road and threw itself right into the right-hand peddle. The force of impact was considerably greater than one might imagine, and a hole was torn in the shoe."

And on YouTube this video clip of an actual attack inside the home of a young American Couple.

The evidence is overwhelming, but why. We used to live harmoniously and now it’s war. Why has this situation arisen? This post was in fact triggered by an observation of a friend. Lindsay noted that the squirrels that live in the large Oak behind his house had not hibernated this year.

My hypothesis is that lack of sleep is making squirrels violent. I realise I am in danger of being accused of anthropomorphism, but I put it to you, could the lack of sleep be affecting the squirrel’s ability to make moral judgements.

The U.S. army was recently faced with a similar problem. Their heavily armed and trained to kill soldiers had committed a number of horrifically violent war crimes in the war zone that is Iraq. Could it be lack of sleep that is causing our all American heros to become VICIOUS arseholes? This was their hypothesise and low and behold it was true, as this study reported on the BBC suggests.

The BBC reports, “The US military is currently investigating how little sleep soldiers can safely get by on and whether drugs can help them to stay alert for longer without sleep.” (Heavily armed soldiers on drugs, does this sound like a good idea to anyone?)

Could the same phenomenon be causing squirrels to turn evil and attack humans?

The evidence would suggest there are grounds for further study. Perhaps we could give squirrels drugs and see if they attack less people?

Of course it could be the crack they are all addicted to which is causing the violence in the first place!