Thousands of people on social media watched a South Dakota man seemingly drown a trapped squirrel in retaliation for it eating apples off his backyard tree.
That video sent shockwaves through the town of Mitchell, prompting a criminal investigation and a new town holiday honoring backyard wildlife so often dismissed as pests.
On Wednesday evening, Mitchell resident Jonathan Wilson posted a video on Facebook that he filmed himself. In it, he shows the ripe apples on his tree while he waters his garden.
“These squirrels, they come and they’re eating my apples,” Wilson says to the camera. “And so, I’m trying to trap them the best that I can.”
He then pans to a squirrel in a live trap, adding that it’s the seventh one he’s caught.
The ‘Swimming Lesson’
“I’m going to take this squirrel here,” Wilson says. “And I’m going to give him a swimming lesson in this tank full of water.”
He then lowers the caged squirrel into a dumpster filled with water.
“He runs around for a while,” Wilson says after dropping the cage. “But after that, he’ll be finished.”
Wilson told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that he doesn’t know that “anything was drowned.”
"That’s an assumption people are making,” Wilson said. “I said I’m putting him in for a bath and then I removed him after his bath was over.”
He said the video comes after two seasons of nearly all his apples being carried away by squirrels. He said he’s tried to shoot them with his BB gun but found it to be “ineffective,” so the video shows a different method to “get rid of them.”
Wilson declined to clarify what he meant by his remark in the video that the squirrels are “finished” after running in the cage underwater for a few minutes.
He also would not explain how dunking them and removing them alive would keep them away from his apple trees.
With the situation now reaching well beyond angry comment sections and neighborhood disputes, he said he has to watch what he says.
“I got to be real careful,” Wilson said. “Because I’m still going to be called in. They’re going to take my case to the grand jury or whatever, who knows.”
‘Those are my squirrels!’
Wilson also said he “doesn’t care about squirrels one way or the other.” His neighbor, Robyn Bender, said she heard that same sentiment when she went to talk to him Thursday after seeing the video.
“He did not seem like he really cared,” Bender told Cowboy State Daily. “There was no remorse no regret.”
Bender said she’s lived next to Wilson for more than five years but never knew him well. When she saw the video, she recognized the surrounding area before she recognized his face.
“I was like, ‘Wait, that looks like my block, those look like my trees,’” Bender said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, those are my squirrels!’ It was pretty upsetting.”
Most of the neighbors, Bender said, value the squirrels, especially one unique black squirrel she has named Squittel.
“I feed them every day,” Bender said. “We are one of three areas in South Dakota that has a black gene-mutation squirrel in our neighborhood.”
Bender hopes Squittel’s gene continues to spread through the neighborhood, and she said there might be some hope of progress.
On Friday morning, Bender said she just got off the phone with Wilson’s son, who said that his father would stop using the traps and switch to a deterrent spray instead.
“He felt the heat,” Bender said. “So we finally got somewhere.”
When asked about changing his methods, Wilson said harvest is mostly done this year but he might consider changes next fall.
“I very likely may look around at other alternatives after what happened this year,” Wilson said. “If they don’t have me locked up for a life sentence or something.”
Case Heads to Prosecutors
Davison County Sheriff Steve Harr told Cowboy State Daily the video was initially reported to the Mitchell Police Department, which asked the sheriff’s office to take over the investigation Thursday afternoon.
That investigation has since concluded and been referred to the Davison County State’s Attorney’s Office to determine charges.
Under South Dakota law, mistreating an animal is a Class 1 misdemeanor, while intentionally and maliciously inflicting gross physical abuse that causes prolonged pain, serious injury or death is a Class 6 felony.
“Both of those are in play,” Harr said. “I won’t have a heck of a lot yet until the prosecutor’s office makes the determination of how to deal with it.”
Wilson has no criminal history, according to Harr. The Davison County State’s Attorney’s Office did not respond to Cowboy State Daily by publication time.
Squirrel Appreciation Day
Mitchell Mayor Jordan Hanson said the video dominated local chatter Thursday, though its reach online proved even broader as social media carried the footage far beyond the town’s borders.
“Our squirrel story made it all the way to Wyoming, huh?” Hanson told Cowboy State Daily. “That’s crazy.”
Hanson declined to comment on the video itself. Instead, he said he wanted to move forward and make something positive of the situation.
“I like to lead with love and positivity,” Hanson said. “There’s nothing you can do but look forward into the future and try to cast a vision of happiness.”
Putting that positivity into practice, Hanson issued an official city proclamation Friday morning designating Oct. 9 as "Squirrel Appreciation Day" across Mitchell.
“Today we’re just going to honor the squirrels,” Hanson said.
Already, Hanson said the response has been “overwhelmingly positive” from the community.
“I just went to the hardware store and I had several people stop me and thank me,” Hanson said. “It’s just a nice gesture.”
Hanson hopes the holiday will ease whatever tension the video left behind in Mitchell.
“I really wanted to calm down any negative feelings and just put a little bow tie on this situation,” Hanson said.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
