1) The guy in the story is not wearing gloves, I'm guessing the threat of monkey pox is small
2) This story says they get to 9 lbs, but I've read other stories that say they get to be 9-10lbs
3) They are bred as livestock in Africa
4) The one that the guy is holding in the story looks like it has a lot more meat on it than a squirrel
5) I've been vaccinated twice for smallpox, once when I was a kid and again in the Army. For people like me, the odds of getting monkey pox are less than a tenth of one percent and even then it would be a very mild case - maybe a mild fever and a blister or two.
6) It looks like these things have already reached the mainland since a guy in NYC killed one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1380406.html