[TroutStalker]

The fluffy black and white masked creature spent more than a week climbing trees and hobbling around the shores of the eastern Imperial River with a rusty, dented Coors Light beer can stuck on her paw.

The so called "reporter" made this up. Since when do aluminum cans rust?

[demosthenes the elder]

The reporter may have mistaken the staining on the can for rust. See the photo, decide for yourself.
While you are correct that aluminum does not "rust" (ie oxidize into Fe2O3 or Fe3O4) it does indeed oxidize, very rapidly - forming an airtight surface layer of Aluminum Oxide which prevents further oxidation, and can stain if corroded by exposure to chemicals other than atmospheric oxygen.
Reporters are barely capable of describing what they see and understand. Surely you don't demand they accurately describe anything so abstruse as molecular chemistry?

I'm glad the critter seems to be on the mend. I am a hunter, and thus am all for wildlife conservation and against littering.

[Gigantor]

"Since when do aluminum cans rust?"

During a construction project I once found a Pepsi can from 1968, that had "New all-aluminum can" on the label.

It had been buried for 25 years, and it had a few small rust spots on it...