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Chipping away at the ice, Guelph firefighters recently freed a raccoon trapped upside down under a sewer grate.
The rescue happened the afternoon of Jan. 16 on Sheridan Street, near the intersection of Eramosa Road and Stevenson Street.
An Instagram post from the Guelph Humane Society on Wednesday explains attempts by two of its animal services officers to help the animal get loose proved unsuccessful, prompting a call to the Guelph Fire Department.
“After efforts failed, it was clear the only way to free her was by removing the grate so the officers decided to sedate the raccoon to reduce stress and call in more reinforcements,” the post reads. “(Firefighters) were able to chip away at the ice and after only a few minutes, the grate was lifted and officers … were able to carefully contain the raccoon and transport her back to the Guelph Humane Society.”
The animal was taken for examination and to have ice stuck tightly to its fur melted off. Its temperature was then slowly raised and it was released the next day.
“It was very superficial,” officer Brooke Riley said of the impact of ice frozen to the raccoon. “It didn’t go down to her skin, so we didn’t have any concerns for that.
As for the animal’s condition when released?
“She was so ready to go, she actually escaped the cage before my partner Ashley put it on the ground. Then she ran off,” Riley said of the raccoon’s release. “She wasn’t waiting for anyone.”
This was the fourth instance of a raccoon being stuck in a sewer grate since late summer.
“That’s kind of unusual,” Riley said. “Raccoons live in the sewers in our city all year-round. We think they were just sort of bulking up a little too early in the season and forgot how big that they get and ended up getting stuck.”
