Raccoon freed from sewer grate after ‘quite the operation’

Alabama.com ^ | Aug. 2, 2019 | Washington post

[Innovative]

The call for help came in shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday, prompting a team of firefighters to suit up and rush to a residential area in Newton, Mass.

"We sent our rescue company," Capt. Eric Fricke of the Newton Fire Department told The Washington Post. "They have the tools and expertise for freeing people from things." …………………….

"The raccoon ended up needing to be sedated so that it could relax enough," he said. "It was fighting the whole process."

When the raccoon stopped struggling, rescuers were finally able to free it. Fricke said Waltham Animal Control is keeping the raccoon for observation and will release it back into the wild after the sedation wears off and it's determined to be healthy.

"Everybody's just happy that there was a positive outcome and they were able to get him out," he said. "Hopefully, he will recover and be off and live his life."

[Innovative]

Poor racoon, but it was lucky in the end.

The article details the effort and long struggle to free the poor thing.

Also a good picture at the link.

[mewzilla]

Loved this comment at the link....

Another name for Huntsville's minor league team- Rocket City Sewer Raccoons.

Hope the good Samaritans were careful in case that sweet furball has rabies.

[bigbob]

Making Racoon Not Grate Again

[Bob434]

LOL WINNER!

[Responsibility2nd]

This just in....

After the hours long rescue process, after the thousands of dollars spent to rescue this raccoon and after the sedation wore off....

The raccoon ran out in the street wan was run over and killed by a truck.

Services are pending....

[Menehune56]

Poor little fella. They may be varmints but they are cute.

[READINABLUESTATE]

Damn raccoons are running everywhere at night in my inner city neighborhood. They are living in attics and other crawl spaces in a few of my neighbors houses. In June I trapped and re-located six of them from my back sidewalk. Gonna set the trap again tonight.
They are so cute, until they growl at you.

[Vigilanteman]

Yeah, raccoons are nasty creatures, in general.

I can see going to this kind of trouble to a cat or a dog, but not a raccoon! An M-80 to put it out of its misery would've been more appropriate.

[Abathar]

Around here we have so many of them that phone call would have gone quite different had they tried to get our FD to do that.

It would have ended in a bang, guaranteed.

[mewzilla]

All creatures great and small, V. :-)

[virgil]

Couldn’t they redesign these gratings so that animals don’t fall in?

[mewzilla]

They could, but then the drains would clog quicker.

[Magnum44]

Everyone thinks they are cute animals with their bandit masks, but they are mean, and can be very nasty. I only know of one I have ever liked...

[mewzilla]

They could, but then the drains gratings would clog quicker.

[A_perfect_lady]

Sometimes it just feels good to do a benevolent act simply because you have the power to save.

[BitWielder1]

Raccoons are pests but they are cute.
There is clearly survival value in being able to attract humans to help.

[COBOL2Java]

Damn raccoons are running everywhere at night in my inner city neighborhood. They are living in attics and other crawl spaces in a few of my neighbors houses. In June I trapped and re-located six of them from my back sidewalk. Gonna set the trap again tonight.

They are so cute, until they growl at you.

---

Wait 'til they evolve...

[dangus]

They’re also very smart and have opposable “thumbs.” So be careful what you say.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Sorry, looks like a game of Whack a Rac to me...

[ClearCase_guy]

That’s Rac-ist.