I was appalled. I would like to take a few moments here to clarify the major distinctions between the common rat and the squirrel. Rats live in sewers and in most campus-run housing.
Squirrels live in trees and dumpsters.
Rats eat stuff that you might find in a sewer or dorm, like garbage, old tires and alligators. Squirrels, on the other hand, eat nuts, berries, wood and refuse, especially those squirrels living in dumpsters. A few days later, I saw a squirrel trying to eat a frozen hot dog. Rats carry a multitude of infectious diseases, including, but not limited to, the plague, while squirrels are carriers of only a few occasionally fatal diseases, including the plague and rabies. While rabies cases are up by over 500 percent in Central Illinois over the last decade, rabies is nothing that 50 shots to the stomach can't fix.