Squirrel emails spark flap in Berkeley
Officials in Berkeley, a city famous for its 1960s Free Speech movement, say they’re sorry for deleting thousands of emails that poured in protesting plans to exterminate squirrels at a park.
Councilman Kriss Worthington said he’s demanding answers to why 81,000 messages vanished from his email account, and he also wants to find an alternative to killing the squirrels.
City spokesman Mathai Chakko told the San Francisco Chronicle that the emails were erased, fearing an overload would crash city computers, including those of police and fire. He says the messages should have been quarantined, not deleted.
