DENVER (KDVR) — It was a sunny and warm Saturday morning when Callie Murray left her Denver home to go to the local farmers market. She had just left her porch when she saw a sight she had grown accustomed to: a couple of squirrels hurrying up her driveway to greet her.
But that’s when she noticed something off about one of them.
“I thought she had a twig or a stick stuck on her back,” Murray said. “And as she got closer, I could start to see what was happening.”
One of them had what looked like an arrow or a dart stuck in its back.
“It was just traumatic shock and disbelief and a little bit of panic,” she said.
This squirrel was not any old squirrel. Murray and her son first met this mother squirrel in October when she had gotten into their pumpkins. Rather than getting upset that she had chomped on their Halloween decorations, they found it cute, especially when they noticed something else about her.
“She was extremely pregnant when she was eating our pumpkins, and so we knew she was going to be a mama soon,” Murray said.
From there, it was just the beginning.
“Every morning since then, she has just returned to the porch for her peanuts and comes every day, multiple times, hangs out, eats from our hands, sits on the porch while we have coffee and just kind of spends part of our day with us,” Murray said.
What to do about the injured squirrel?
Then she learned that Saturday that it was their squirrel who had the arrow in its back. She called Denver Animal Protection and other wildlife agencies, who told her the best thing she could do was capture it.
“Setting out traps is a good step,” said Lt. Josh Rolfe with Denver Animal Protection. “Then just keeping an eye on it and trying to monitor the situation. And then call us if it was mobile and then ends up not being mobile.”
Rolfe also weighed in on the situation. He said according to state law, it is legal to hunt or exterminate squirrels because they are considered small game and pests.
“As long as the practice is humane in the way that people are trapping and removing them or exterminating them, then the city is not going to have a problem with that,” Rolfe said. “The squirrel is still alive and running around, and so I think that we would consider that an inhumane practice to be shooting it with an arrow. In a way that injured or maimed the animal, but didn’t kill it.”
A Denver Police Department spokesperson also told FOX31 that shooting an arrow or dart at an animal would, at minimum, “fall under unlawful throwing of projectiles and missiles.” Colorado law says it is illegal to throw stones, projectiles or other missiles on public or private property for any reason.
Knowing people like this exist in her neighborhood, Murray said is not a comforting thought.
“It’s just senseless violence. I mean, we understand hunting and fishing for purpose and this is not that,” she said. “I mean, that scares parents, that scares pet parents, you know — just that that’s happening close by is dangerous.”
Rolfe said the best way to deal with squirrels if they are being a nuisance is to catch them in a live trap and release them.
“There are guidelines within the state for, you know, how close you have to remove an animal and relocate it. You can’t just, like, take a squirrel from here, take it up to the mountains and release it. You have to do it within a certain distance from where it was found,” Rolfe said.
Denver neighbors pitch in to help hurt squirrel
In the meantime, Murray has set up live traps to try and catch her squirrel. She is thankful the squirrel has made it this long, but she knows it’s only a matter of time.
“We’re hoping we’ll get her in the next couple of days and we can catch her before the infection gets too bad,” she said.
She is also thankful for her neighbors and the community who made this their mission too.
“We have had neighbors help watch the porch. We actually picked up a trap from a neighbor we never met last night that has been checking in with me multiple times throughout the day just offering words of encouragement,” Murray said. “I think we’re all just kind of in support of bringing her back and getting her fixed.”
Rachel Saurer
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