MACOMB COUNTY, Mich — Baby ducks aren't the only animals that fall prisoner to sewer drains nowadays.
Firefighters in Macomb County, Michigan, were called to remove a baby raccoon that unfortunately got its head stuck in a sewer cover.
The Harrison Township Firefighters Local 1737 union released a picture of the furry fellow to Facebook, and it's probably the most unfortunate, yet adorable thing you will see all day.
Lt. Brian Lorkowski, who has worked with the fire department for 20 years, told the Detroit Free Press that multiple methods were used to try and get the little masked bandit freed.
The team used soap in an effort to loosen the sewer's grip on the juvenile animal. That didn't work. So, they tried to cut through the cast iron but stopped because it started to get hot, and they did not want to harm the animal in the process.
So then, they used cooking oil!
“We had the homeowner bring out cooking oil,” Lorkowski told the Free Press. “And that was enough to free the animal. We had someone hold the head kind of and then someone was on the other side pulling the body. And it was able to free itself."
Macomb County Animal Control checked the animal for injuries, and none were found.
As odd as it may seem, raccoons being trapped in sewage coverings are a thing. in 2019, firefighters in Newton, Massachusetts spent two hours freeing a raccoon that was wedged in a sewer.
According to experts at Wildlife Shield in Canada, raccoons scavenge for their food. In urban and rural settings, humans drop food all the time, or they throw half-eaten food into the trash, making it easy for a raccoon to find food and survive.
Food will often float into sewer drains and down into the sewers. If necessary, a raccoon will make its way into the sewer to forage for food to survive.
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