City Residents Create Impromptu Memorial For Dead Raccoon

Published on 7/10/2015 at 12:44 PM

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This raccoon may not have gotten a lot of attention from humans during his life ... but after his death he became an accidental celebrity.

While his body lay on the side of a Toronto street for over 14 hours, waiting for city workers to finally take him away, residents created a stirring memorial for the raccoon. Over the course of the day they surrounded his body with notes, flowers and candles, local outlet CTV News reported.

It all started when Toronto resident Jason Wagar walked by the raccoon's body on his way to work Thursday morning. Unsettled by the sight of a dead animal lying alone on a busy sidewalk, he tweeted at Toronto City Services.

A city employee tweeted back at Wagar, telling him that the raccoon's body would be promptly disposed of. But by the time Wagar walked by again at 3 p.m., the raccoon was still there ... and a memorial had started to go up around him.

Soon people all across Canada were tweeting about the raccoon with the hashtag #deadraccoonto. More and more city residents added to the memorial - there was even a guestbook and pen for people to leave messages like "RIP beautiful soul."

Jason Wager walked by again at 8:20 PM and tweeted at city services again. Once it started to get dark, lit candles were added to the shrine.

Finally, around 11 p.m., a city van pulled up to remove the body. A crowd solemnly watched as the raccoon was, at long last, taken away.

But what does it all mean? Were the messages and flowers and cards a joke, or were they sincere attempts at honoring another life? The answer is probably somewhere in between.

While some Torontonians were certainly having a laugh at the raccoon's expense, the truth is that thousands of people took the time out of their day to notice this little dude in his final resting place ... and maybe that says something about how we relate to the animals who live all around us. We've got lots of four-legged, furry neighbors in our cities and towns, and they can't - and shouldn't - be ignored.