The cutest terror

What I read

According to "German police save man from baby squirrel terror" (2018), after they rescued a man from its attack, German police adopted a baby squirrel, which they have named Karl-Friedrich. The article also says that when hungry or in trouble, squirrels are known to chase or attack people as other reports from the US and UK show. 

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My response 

When I read this last week, my first reaction was: "That can't be right," but apparently it is. Perhaps because it seems so unlikely is the reason that the article also mentions reports of other cases from around the world where squirrels have terrorised people. But I still find is a bit weird. The baby squirrel is so small that anyone larger than a small child could easily pick it up and throw it away. But perhaps those claws can inflict a nasty scratch. 

Many people think that koalas, one of the iconic animals of my country, are cute and harmless, but they aren't. They have seriously long, strong claws for their life in trees, and if handled by careless humans, they can inflict very nasty scratches. And the kangaroo, which is on my country's coat of arms, can kill dogs, humans and other large animals with a kick from its powerful legs. I think that the emu, which is the other animal on my nation's coat of arms, can also be fairly dangerous, unlike your average chicken or duck. A redeeming feature of both kangaroos and emus is that they can be eaten, although emu is not nearly so commonly eaten as kangaroo meat. Koalas, in contrast, are perfectly inedible. I remember when one fell down dead at my brother's home a few years ago that it just lay on the ground untouched by the local wild animals. Apparently, their diet of strongly flavoured gum leaves makes their flesh inedible to animals that might otherwise enjoy eating them. I have no idea whether squirrels are eaten any where. 

The pictures with the article also reminded me of the possums that lived in the trees around my family home in Australia. They were also very cute, and although they had both claws and teeth, it never occurred to me to be afraid of them. I suppose if under threat they might also attack a human, although they never attacked me or my brothers and sisters. But we never attacked them, either. 

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My question

Should there be any limits on eating animals that are not in danger of extinction, for example, dogs, ducks, kangaroos, pigs, cats, chickens and so on? 

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Reference

• German police save man from baby squirrel terror. (2018, August 10). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45150298