The Los Angeles Times publishes a warning every Summer about wild rodents in Southern California being carriers of bubonic plague germs. The warning is usually buried somewhere toward the back of the newspaper. Medicine for over a hundred years has had an effective vaccine against the plague that cures it in victims even after the symptoms appear. It's also a standard inoculation that you should get if you are in a part of the country where you can be expected to encounter wild rodents. Of course, you have to go to a doctor to get it. If I recall correctly, about 30 people a year throughout America die from it after refusing to go to a doctor.
In the 1990s, Santa Monica, California had an infestation of gray squirrels that were notorious for causing traffic accidents by darting into the streets right in front of cars, causing them to panic-stop and get rear-ended. The municipal government was posting warnings and threatening stiff fines against anyone encouraging the cute squirrels by feeding them. At the UCLA campus and the Disney studio in Burbank where people did regularly feed the squirrels, they would come right up to people and tug on their pants or stockings to be fed.
The Los Angeles Times publishes a warning every Summer about wild rodents in Southern California being carriers of bubonic plague germs. The warning is usually buried somewhere toward the back of the newspaper. Medicine for over a hundred years has had an effective vaccine against the plague that cures it in victims even after the symptoms appear. It's also a standard inoculation that you should get if you are in a part of the country where you can be expected to encounter wild rodents. Of course, you have to go to a doctor to get it. If I recall correctly, about 30 people a year throughout America die from it after refusing to go to a doctor.
In the 1990s, Santa Monica, California had an infestation of gray squirrels that were notorious for causing traffic accidents by darting into the streets right in front of cars, causing them to panic-stop and get rear-ended. The municipal government was posting warnings and threatening stiff fines against anyone encouraging the cute squirrels by feeding them. At the UCLA campus and the Disney studio in Burbank where people did regularly feed the squirrels, they would come right up to people and tug on their pants or stockings to be fed.
Fred Patten