Masked Bandit Stuck in Door, Not Having a Good Morning
Early this morning Casper Firefighters aided a raccoon who appears to have gotten its paw stuck in a door.
"We've all been there! This raccoon was not having a good morning, so we lent him a helping hand and made sure he was released and home free! #casperfirefighters#local904#service#community" read a caption they posted to Facebook with pictures.
According to Wildlife Rescue League:
"Raccoons are one of the few native mammals that have not been restricted to increasingly smaller areas of natural habitat by urban development. The raccoon has adapted to man’s environment. Attics and chimneys become dens and rest sites, storm sewers become subways and pet food left outdoors replaces the traditional dietary staples. This urbanization has created the potential for frequent encounters between humans and raccoons. Some of these may be problematic."
"Raccoons have a highly developed sense of touch considered to be superior to other non-primate mammals. They can easily unlock doors and get into trash cans and other mischief," says the rescue league, but I guess for this little fella he wasn't so lucky.
NOTE: statistics show that it’s not safe to touch or engage raccoons no matter how friendly they appear to be.
According to the Center for Disease Control in the United States there are approximately 7000 to 9000 reported annual cases of rabies, with a large portion of those cases stemming from encounters with raccoons.
Raccoons are generally passive creatures, but when they’ve contracted certain diseases like rabies, they tend to become quite aggressive and unpredictable. The average person cannot make an informed distinction between a healthy or sick raccoon so the advice is always to steer clear of them and to call animal control if the situation appears to require their services.