A three-year-old has been hospitalised after being attacked by a scurry of squirrels.
Finley Renouf, from Redruth, was taken to the Royal Cornwall hospital after the incident, which left him with severe injuries to his hand.
Mum Sophie, 22, explained that she and her son were walking in local woodland when Finley reached out to feed one squirrel, before six others jumped out of the hedge.
Renouf said: “There was literally one squirrel there and my son, as you would, fed him as usual. Next thing, six of them came running out of the hedge and then, all of a sudden, all I remember is him screaming. I looked - and there was blood pouring out of his hand.”
Despite Renouf intervening quickly, Finley already had puncture wounds to his hand, which were bleeding heavily and required three hours of treatment and bandages.
Now, Renouf wants to warn other parents about the dangers of feeding squirrels, saying: “I was obviously very concerned as never in a million years would I put his safety at risk so if I thought they would hurt him I’d never of let him do it. I feel awful that it happened.”
“I’ve fed them when I was a child, if it put them in danger then you wouldn’t ever let them do it - but you don’t expect it to happen.”
And it seems this isn’t a one-off incident, as a friend of Sophie messaged her on Facebook to say the same had happened to her daughter.
The family are now concentrating on keeping the wound from becoming infected and trying to spread awareness to other parents about feeding squirrels.