Wildlife emergency rescue teams are used to finding distressed and injured animals in deadly, hopeless situations, but one wildlife rescue worker was left speechless when she discovered a panicked raccoon trapped in a drain.
“I was on scene by 3:00 p.m. The animal’s moans were unlike anything I’d ever heard,” said Rebecca Dmytryk, a Wildlife Emergency Services worker. “It’s unusual for an adult animal to cry out, so, this meant the animal was in extreme distress. Just heartbreaking.”
The California emergency workers believe the raccoon climbed inside a storm drain and accidentally crawled into a pipe that became too small for him, and wedged him in without any way to turn around or back out. As time passed, the helpless animal became even more distressed and began crying out for help as water and sludge started building up around him.
Eventually, a homeless man heard the grunts and cries from the pipe and helped alert the rescue workers, who arrived at the scene and found the animal eight feet inside the pipe. The crew immediately started shoveling the sludge and water from the drain to help the raccoon breathe, but they determined they’d have to cut into the parking lot to be able to get to the animal.
“That plan didn’t set well with Bill, the property manager,” Dmytryk said. “He would not grant us permission to dig up the newly paved parking lot…but, the property owner, Shirley – a real animal lover, gave us the go-ahead…under one condition – that we put it back the way we found it.”
By 9 p.m., the team still hadn’t managed to get to the poor animal and by that point, most of the team was volunteering to stay and work beyond working hours to continue to dig and save the animal. Thankfully, the rescuers finally reached the freezing animal just before 11 p.m., pulled it out, and placed it on warming pads before rushing him to a vet for treatment.
“Carlos, Henry, and Alex chose to spend their Friday night jackhammering into a parking lot, and Shirley, such incredible kindness and trust. It just shows what we can do when we band together – we accomplished something that at first seemed so implausible,” Dmytryk said.
Watch the entire video below to see the incredible moment the emergency crew finally freed the distressed animal.
Can you believe how hard these rescuers worked to save an animal many people consider to be a pest? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured image: Facebook/Wildlife Emergency Services]
Rescuers Work For 20 Hours To Save A Raccoon Trapped In A Drain is an article from: LifeDaily