A cop vs. squirrel fight ends with the officer macing and shooting the furry creature.

In other squirrely news as reported by The Inquisitr, a plague infected squirrel recently shut down a California campground.

Tennessee officer Jody Putnam was fired after a violent run in with an angry squirrel. Putnam responded to a call about a rampant squirrel in a local Dollar General store because animal control was reportedly unavailable to take care of the wily rodent.

According to a local newspaper, Mr. Putnam first tried to subdue the animal with pepper spray, forcing customers to flee the building. When that failed to produce the desired results, he pulled out his gun in the middle of the store and opened fire.

Local resident and store owner Carl Duffield was on the scene for the event and was not pleased with Mr. Putnam’s starting a cop vs. squirrel fight:

“Shooting back there, of course that should not have been, that should not have happened…there was a lot of people that come out and just like me they came out and they were coughing and a hacking. It was comical, but I’m sure they didn’t feel that way — the customers that came out.”

But, basically macing half the store or using excessive and unnecessary force wasn’t the actual reason he got fired. Apparently, Mr. Putnam refused to file an incident report, which was a violation of department policy. The biggest “loser” in all of this was, of course, the squirrel who lost his life by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Do you think Mr. Putnam should have lost his job over an errant squirrel?