By Olivia Lloyd
The Charlotte Observer
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — The search was recently on for a raccoon with a jar stuck on its head, as inmates joined wildlife rescuers to help free the trapped animal in Florida “before it’s too late.”
After a week spent inside the plastic jar, the raccoon has now been freed.
The raccoon was first spotted in its predicament Aug. 18, Wild Florida Rescue told McClatchy News.
The creature likely had “some room around the neck for air, but the oxygen can’t be strong,” rescuers said on Facebook. “It must be agonizing.”
They said he could still see through the jar but couldn’t eat what he saw.
Groups of volunteers conducted stakeouts and spotted the animal multiple times in the thick woods over the course of a week, but it kept slipping away.
Eventually, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey coordinated an inmate work crew to help out.
“This guy was so good, I had to bring out an exclusive team to help locate the subject,” Ivey wrote in a news release.
Videos show the inmates heading into the thick underbrush, some holding nets or large pieces of cloth to catch the slippery animal.
The inmate crew walked through the dense vegetation while the crime unit searched from the sky with a drone, but they didn’t catch sight of him for hours, the sheriff said.
Finally, around dark, the inmates spotted the raccoon walking out of the woods toward a garbage can, but they didn’t have the equipment to catch it. When they followed the creature and cornered him, they learned “just how fast he was,” Ivey said.
“I think everyone who was in there almost had their hands on him at some point, but he snuck under some branches, and scurried to the woods on the other side of the street,” Ivey said. “And yes, before you say anything…he got away from us with a big giant jar on his head.”
The rescue center said the crew was now invested in the case, but the group eventually had to call it a night. The inmates said they would be willing to stay late or come back the next day to continue searching, the sheriff said.
Then, about a week after the first reported sighting, a call came in.
A homeowner dialed the rescue center to say she saw the raccoon on her bird feeder before it scurried into a tree, rescuers said.
A group of volunteers rushed to the scene and tried to use a catch pole to get it out of the tall tree, but even as a rescuer sat on someone’s shoulders, she couldn’t reach the animal.
The creature climbed down from the tree and took off running as the rescuers gave chase. Eventually, once and for all, they were able to capture the “beautifully angry raccoon,” rescuers said in a Facebook post.
“While the carrier was brought over we were a sweaty crying team but pulled it together, dropped him in the carrier and the jar was off,” rescuers said.
They evaluated the raccoon and named it Buzz before releasing the critter the same day.
Wild Florida Rescue thanked the community for its support and commended the team on a fantastic job.
“It was a great ending,” Heather Pepe-Dillon, co-founder of Wild Florida Rescue, told McClatchy News.
Pepe-Dillon said the center doesn’t actively patrol for wildlife in need of help, so volunteers rely on the community to alert them.
“The raccoon rescue happened because of the original reporting person and the person who called in the last sighting so we could deploy a team,” Pepe-Dillon told McClatchy News. “We love the community support.”
She added the assistance from sheriff’s office’s is “encouraging for the team” and lets them know they’re doing important work.
Brevard County is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, about a 55-mile drive southeast from Orlando.
—
©2024 The Charlotte Observer.
Visit charlotteobserver.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.