A woman from the Montreal area is going above and beyond to rescue some orphaned raccoons.
She keeps them in her home while she looks for a shelter that will take them in, hoping that you can help.
,A friend found him on the road with his mother. The mother was killed,” said the woman, who did not wish to be named for fear that she might be accused of keeping wildlife as pets. “They would not have survived on their own. He was so young that he didn’t even know that his mother had died. My friend asked me if I could do it, so I said, ‘Of course, never mind.'”
The woman has been giving homes to the creatures for two and a half months. He also gave them milk from a bottle in the beginning. Now, all four have names: Scooter, Roxy, Smokey and Bandit.
The rescuer says he is familiar with saving the animals and shows no signs of illness.
Still, raccoons are a handful.
“I love them and I can embrace them and everything, but they are wild animals and they must be free,” she told Global News.
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Her goal is to find some kind of animal rehabilitation shelter that will take them in as quickly as possible. The rescuer’s friend Susan Macassie, who herself runs an animal rescue service, is helping with the search. They haven’t had any luck so far.
“I want to see a sanctuary or someone who rehabilitates and releases them into the wild, help us,” she said. “There are some good sanctuaries, but they are full.”
The rescuer said he called the SPCA, but they told him to either release them into the wild and “let nature do its thing,” or to have them euthanized to be brought to the agency.
The benevolent rescuer says that they will no longer be able to defend themselves in the woods, and that she will welcome them into her home, rather than be killed.
She’s spending hundreds of dollars on supplies and constantly cleaning up after messy and energetic creatures.
“Taking care of them is a full-time job right now,” Macassie said. “They’re growing up.”
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Two women believe the critters deserve a fair shot at growing up.
“We have snatched away all their houses everywhere. We build, build, build. It is more of theirs than ours,” said the rescuer.
Bill Dowd of Schaddle Humane Wildlife Control says he has seen many people try to keep raccoons as pets.
“The homeowners will tell us that they go out and every tap in their entire house will turn on and water is everywhere. Raccoons will break into the bathroom and start opening all the pill jars,” he told Global News.
He agrees that finding the right sanctuary could be a solution, given that one has experienced driving wild animals away from human aid.
“It’s going to be a challenge to find a rehab facility that can do this, especially in this late mating or birthing season,” he said, explaining that in the spring and summer, the facilities would be full of baby raccoons. Huh.
The raccoon foster parents are convinced they’ll be able to find them a perfect home soon, and by publicizing the story they hope, someone Will come and help them.