While walking her dog near Toronto, Canada, Megan O’Connor noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She couldn’t exactly make out what she was looking at, so she decided to investigate, and get a closer look.
When Megan looked into the grass, she saw a furry, helpless animal with a plastic jar stuck on its head.
“At that point, I wasn’t even sure what kind of animal he was,” O’Connor told The Dodo. “He was definitely breathing, but the jar was around his head very tight.”
Not knowing how long this poor creature had been stuck like this, she immediately called Toronto Wildlife Centre for help. It wasn’t long before rescuers sprung into action and raced to the scene to help save this helpless animal.
Rescuers arrived, and one held the animal tightly while another cut the jar open. Soon, they all realized that the animal was, in fact, a raccoon.
“As soon as they saw his face, they realized he had a sore on his nose and was covered in grease,” O’Connor said. “The jar was most likely a mayonnaise jar, and he had gotten it all over himself.”
Noticing that the scared raccoon had an injury on his paw, in addition to the one on his nose, the rescue team brought the animal back to the wildlife center for treatment and recovery. They would hold onto him for five days before they felt comfortable releasing him back into the wild.
“He was in pretty reasonable body shape, so it seems that he hadn’t been stuck for a very long time,” Nathalie Karvonen, executive director of Toronto Wildlife Centre, told The Dodo. “It’s very fortunate that he was found when he was. Any longer and he could have suffocated or starved to death.”
After five days of recovery, the injured raccoon had returned to his healthy, happy state. The rescuers were able to release him back into the woods.
Even though there was a happy ending for this particular raccoon, it angers O’Connor that the poor animal was put in that situation in the first place. She feels as if the entire ordeal could have been completely avoided had people been more conscientious about where they throw their trash.
“Living in a city…I’m very aware of the consequences animals face from people littering,” O’Connor said. “This shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. It makes a better city if we can all coexist, which means being more responsible about handling our garbage.”
In order to help prevent this from happening to other animals, there are certain small steps that you can take that make a big difference.
Start by washing and rinsing all of your food containers to remove any food remnants that might attract wild animals. Then, dispose of them in secure, covered bins that have some sort of ‘locking’ mechanism to keep the lid on tight. Taking these small steps will prevent curious critters from getting their paws (and heads!) into something that they shouldn’t.
The Humane Society says that around 14,000 animals are brought to them each year with injuries from our trash. Most of the animals are raccoons that are “suffering from can injuries or entangled in plastic six-pack rings.”
Thankfully, this raccoon was lucky enough to survive his ordeal, but it’s up to us to make sure we take care of our environment and wildlife for the future.
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