The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Raccoons by nature are an inquisitive and mischievous animal. Unfortunately this behaviour often lands them in serious jeopardy.

A call came into the Sanctuary from a woman extremely concerned about a raccoon that was trapped in one of the recycling bins at the Turtle Creek refuse station. She could hear its plaintive crying but was not sure how to help so called for us to intervene. Upon arrival Jan and Sara found the poor little soul with its head caught in the partition separating one for of recycling material from the other. It had obviously crawled into the bin and then dropped through the divider but its head had stopped its descent leaving its body dangling and unable to gain purchase to extricate itself.  What was so completely unsettling was that this little guy was covered in garbage. Time after time people had ignored the pathetic and painful cries of this poor raccoon and just continued to dump garbage on top of it never once giving a thought to the life of the animal.  How ugly!  Sara and Jan had some difficulty prising the raccoon from its trapped position but once accomplished returned to the Sanctuary.  The raccoon was assessed given a few days of R & R and was then released with a strong lecture on the hazards of dumpsters and a warning to steer clear of these nasty things in future.

Very shortly after this incident another call was received and once again Brenda and Sara set out to help a raccoon in trouble in a dumpster, this time in Bracebridge. There was a bit of a twist to this story as this raccoon had been seen way back in the spring with its foot caught in a pop can. The caller had tried to capture the raccoon to no avail as it took off with each effort hopping and dragging the pop as it ran away. Raccoons are tenacious creatures as this raccoon would prove, as it was the same raccoon we were responding to in the dumpster with the pop can still very much attached to its leg.

Once again, Sara dove into the dumpster and successfully retrieved the raccoon. But wait, there’s more. Inside the dumpster Sara discovered two more raccoons. She was able to capture them both one of which took of immediately; the other was brought back to the Sanctuary to be checked out. This brings us to the good news and the bad news. Unfortunately the raccoon that had been carting the pop can on its foot for 4 months was in a bad way. The pop can was actually imbedded into the bone, causing constant bleeding, a serious infection and an atrophied foot. Sadly, it was felt that we should do the kind and right thing by humanely euthanizing rather than leaving the poor thing to continued pain and suffering. The good news is the other raccoon while unfortunately had one eye missing was quite capable of looking after itself. It was deemed healthy and viable and was therefore released back to the wild. Once again we admonished the raccoon about dumpsters and the evils that lurk within.

These incidents brought back to us how we as humans have impacted on our wildlife. Let’s all remember these raccoons and be cautious about our disposal practices and always keep in mind how our actions and behaviours can be so good, bad and sadly very ugly.  This incident also sent another message, but to us here at the Sanctuary this time. Some times our jobs are fun and exciting as when we release a bear. Sometimes our job is warm and fuzzy as when holding a baby animal and nursing it back to health and sometimes our jobs can be sad as when we have to alleviate suffering but what it did do is remind us that our jobs are necessary and vital to the well being of our wildlife.

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