Here’s a rare and unusual rescue story you don’t hear every day.
Often, we hear of rescue stories about dogs and cats being abandoned or poultry and livestock being abused.
Most reports on rescued animals are focused on dogs and cats as pets, while reports on poultry and livestock abuse are only for extreme cases.
But we seldom hear rescues of wild animals.
When people call for help regarding a wild animal, it’s often about protecting the humans, not the other way around.
So, when Harrison Township Fire Department received a report on an animal that needed help, they didn’t expect this one.
The call was regarding a curious little raccoon.
A raccoon’s head had gotten stuck in a sewer cap.
According to callers, his body was nowhere in sight.
The rescuers had no clue how he got in there. The hole in the cap seemed too tight for him to pass through.
Seeing that the little guy needed help, they took out the sewer cap and started to brainstorm how to get him out of there.
According to Fire Lieutenant Brian Lorkowski, they had very few options.
Using a saw to cut through the metal is the first thing that came into mind. But he knew that a cast iron would easily heat up with a saw and might burn the raccoon.
There’s also the danger of cutting the animal, so that option was out of the window.
The next option was to lubricate the raccoon out of this predicament.
They put on hand gloves since it was starting to scratch and bite. They had to think fast because the raccoon was getting agitated.
They tried some dish soap, but that plan also failed.
Luckily, a homeowner handed them cooking oil.
Peanut oil, to be exact. They coated his neck with the oil and gently twisted and pulled him out.
After 20 minutes, the little fella was finally free.
The rescuers sent the raccoon to animal control to get him dewormed and vaccinated before releasing him back. Hopefully, he won’t get stuck in sewer caps again.
While this instance is rare, reports of animals to be rescued were not.
Shaheen Baghsterds & Fake farmers are not the only ones occupying city spots to agitate… Some months back… Monkeys also occupied town square in Lopburi, Thailand… because tourists were missing due to Covid Lockdown & there were no bananas/peanuts… @Timesnow @Republic pic.twitter.com/IzgwWKoHs9
— RaviMC (@RMCpost) December 19, 2020
According to Macomb County Animal Control Chief Jeff Randazzo, there are more animal reports in the past year because animals were at home more.
With the pandemic, humans easily notice something unusual if there’s an animal in trouble and are quick to call for rescue.
One unusual statistic that came out of this pandemic is wildlife in urban areas.
Coronavirus in Catalonia — Boars descend from the mountains to the very center of Barcelona, after several days of people being locked at homepic.twitter.com/6IRFzl2cKz
— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) March 19, 2020
Since people were in lockdown and their homes, animals were free to roam around the quiet city.
There were reports of animal sightings such as deer, wild boar, monkey, mountain deer, and an ostrich running loose in different cities all over the globe.
Maybe, just maybe, this was also the case for this raccoon.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
