On Friday, health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported some of the worst news we've heard in awhile (from them). They announced that owners of hedgehogs should immediately stop kissing their sweet pets. Um... Excuse me?!
Take our romaine lettuce...
Take our sausages...
But our hedgehogs? That's just taking it TOO FAR!
“Don’t kiss or snuggle hedgehogs because this can spread salmonella germs to your face and mouth and make you sick,” the agency said.
Since October of last year, the center reported that 11 people in eight different states had come in contact with a hedgehog, and then became infected with a strain of salmonella.
Thankfully, no one has died and only one person had to be hospitalized, according to the C.D.C.
“The fact that hedgehogs are a risk is not new,” Jane Sykes said, a professor of small animal internal medicine at the University of California, Davis. “But we don’t know how common the shedding of salmonella is among hedgehogs specifically.”
Hedgehogs can come in contact with salmonella from contaminated food, bacteria living in their intestines, or even from their mothers before they are born.
“It’s not a puppy. It’s not a kitten. It’s not a hamster,” Kim Tipton, a hedgehog breeder in Niagara Falls said. “It’s not something you’re going to pet or cuddle.”
Well, it WAS!!!!! Tread carefully out there, hedgehog lovers.
Read all of the details on the New York Times.