Peanut butter jar lands raccoon in a jam
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The search for a tasty treat ended in a raccoon rescue Wednesday.
The raccoon found itself in a sticky situation in Fort Erie just north of the Peace Bridge after it was trapped at the top of a hydro transformer pole with a peanut butter jar wedged on its head.
“We have a very happy raccoon,” Wendy Trombley, the manager at the Fort Erie SPCA, said after setting the animal free. “We think she is a mom, so there are some babies that are very happy as well.
“She was sitting at the top of pole. She tried to come down but was scared. She went back up to the very top and just sat. She didn’t know what to do with herself.
“People have to wash the containers in their recycle bin. Raccoons like that little bit that we don’t care about and they will go for it and get stuck.”
It took about three hours to rescue the raccoon and release it. One witness said the raccoon had been up the hydro pole most of the night.
“It is kind of comical, but its hard for the animal to see and it’s very hot in that little space in the jar,” Trombley said. “I’m not sure how she ended up the pole. Somebody may have tried to help her and scared her or a dog may have frightened her.”
The humane society, the Fort Erie Fire Department and the Canadian Niagara Power Company all assisted in the rescue.
Canadian Niagara Power staff did a quick canvass of the the neighborhood, including a nearby Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and shut off the power to protect the animal control officer and the raccoon.
“The fire department came down and took our officer, Mark Dickson, up in the cherry-picker with the cage and the control stick,” Trombley said. “He looped the racoon.
“We got her in the cage, and I was able to get my hand in. I grabbed the jar and I got Mark to pull down on the raccoon’s body a bit and the jar slipped off.
“We needed the power off. The other danger is the raccoon falling as we were trying to rescue it.
“We were prepared on the ground for that. We had a cage stuffed with blankets and if she fell, we were going to try and catch her and give her a soft landing.”
bill.sawchuk@sunmedia.ca