The people of Toronto have done something very sweet for a local raccoon left dead in the streets for over 12 hours. It took a long time for the city’s animal services to remove the dead raccoon from the sidewalk, during which time locals decided to give him a proper memorial.
It all started at 9 AM on Thursday, July 9th when a man found a dead raccoon on the sidewalk and called Toronto’s city administration to report it. It wasn’t until around 11 PM that night that the raccoon was finally removed by animal services. Within that time span a lot of things manifested, including a new trending hashtag #deadraccoonto.
Toronto locals started showing up to pay their respects to the dead raccoon, bringing photos, cards, candles and flowers to the site, creating a memorial any raccoon would be proud of.
Around 12 PM, someone left one of the first pieces of the memorial, a note that read: “Rest dear Raccoon, Help is on the way from the city.”
About 3-hours after the first note appeared the raccoon’s memorial site had grown even more, including a perfectly placed flower, a card and even a framed photo.
The gifts didn’t stop there; instead they kept coming in the form of cards and even a hashtag.
Any dead animal is a sad sight, but this little guy looks like he went peacefully and at least he’s getting a lot of respect in the after life. In fact, the people of Toronto reacted in such a way that it restores some faith in the kindness of people.
By 8 PM there were a lot of flowers placed all around the raccoon.
One thoughtful city councilor decided to leave trash bins open as a sign of mourning and respect, and a way to offer an open buffet to all of the dead raccoon’s living relatives and friends.
And somehow Drake got pulled into it…
As the clock ticked near 8:20 PM the raccoon remained on the streets surrounded by the love of his memorial.
At which point people couldn’t help but start up a candlelight vigil…
When it didn’t seem anything was going to make animal services collect the raccoon a donation box was set up with the instructions: “The proper authorities will only move this little fella when enough funds are raised.”
Even after dark many people stopped by to add to the raccoon’s growing collection of notes.
And then, at 11:00 PM animal services finally arrived.
Now all that is left is a memory, and a new Twitter account @DeadRaccoonTO
Even after the raccoon was removed people continued to gather around and light candles in his honor.
RIP Raccoon, you will be missed and never forgotten!
Photo Credits: Twitter
