VANCOUVER – A concerned group of residents in Vancouver's West End is coming together to help liberate a trapped skunk.
The critter was first spotted near Haro and Bidwell Street back in August. Still a baby, it appears to have gotten its neck stuck in a plastic cup lid.
Forty-seven-year-old Drina Read, who’s been living in the neighbourhood for over 25 years, was one of the first people to see the skunk struggling.
“When the lid was attached to the cup, the skunk would have been attracted to the sugary smell and stuck his head in not knowing that he would not be able to get out of it, and then the cup eventually fell off and he was stuck in the lid,” said Read.
The hope was the animal would eventually be able to free itself.
But on Halloween night, that same skunk was spotted again, this time around Haro and Jervis. The animal was still trapped, but grew considerably larger, which was visibly aggravating its suffering.
Read tried to get in touch with Wildlife Rescue and Critter Care, but they both turned her down, saying they don’t have enough resources to assist.
She then called the City of Vancouver, but quickly learned that the city does not even have a wildlife officer to deal with situations like this.
Feeling helpless, Read decided to take matters into her own hands.
So Thursday morning, she put up posters around her neighbourhood, asking people to help spot and free the skunk.
“Within two hours, I had someone emailing me. After that, I put my little thing on Facebook, and within an hour, another person has contacted me.”
She says once they have enough people, they will try to spot and somehow catch the animal themselves.
“We will try to get out there, and my feeling is if we have about three or more people, we should be able to surround it, move in and take off the lid.”
She says the trapped skunk would not have had to go through its ordeal had people taken a little more responsibility over where their garbage goes.
“People need to stop throwing stuff on the sidewalk and into the bushes, because that is where the animals tend to be. I have a feeling that is what happened to this little guy. Somebody threw their unwanted bubble tea or Slurpee into the bushes, and the little skunk was the victim of that.”
The group is appealing to the public to help in the search and rescue operation. For more information, you can get in touch with Drina at 604-331-1532 or Mandy at 778-772-0292.
yuliya.talmazan@globalnews.ca
@Yulst
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