Plague-infected squirrel shuts down CA park

Three parks in southern California have been shut down after authorities detected bubonic plague in a squirrel that had been trapped as part of routine sampling. Since the disease is spread via flea bites, the parks have been shut down until authorities can kill all of the ground squirrels and ensure that all the fleas are dead. Sad to think of all the dead ground squirrels, but it's probably good to nip this problem in the bud.

Image courtesy Flickr/BinaryApe