These Baby Raccoons Lost Their Mom Because Of A Trap

This happens all the time — but you can help stop it.

When a man in Florida realized there was a raccoon in his attic, he did the most heartless thing imaginable - he set a lethal trap and killed her.

Little did he know there were five newborn babies nesting in the attic, who depended on their mom to survive.

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center

So he took the orphaned raccoons to a wildlife rehabilitation facility. And according to the facility, this happens all too often.

"Trappers often kill the mother and dump their young on wildlife rehabilitation organizations like ours, in many cases they threaten to kill the babies as well if we do not accept them," Damen Hurd, vice president of Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center in Florida, explained on the center's Facebook page on Thursday. "I haven't been posting much lately but this really left me frustrated."

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center
Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center

And there's a better, more humane way, to get raccoons out of the attic and into the woods.

"We recommend contacting a local wildlife rescue or rehabilitation center to ask for an animal-friendly trapper that will relocate or release animals that they trap instead of killing them," Hurd told The Dodo.

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center

Despite their brush with death and the sudden loss of their mom, the orphaned raccoons are getting fed through little syringes by wildlife rehabilitators and are doing well.

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center

"The coons are doing great," Hurd said. "We've fed them numerous times and they seem healthy so far. It's just unfortunate that they are orphans in the first place."

To help raise these babies at Wildlife Inc. - which is trying to build a larger wildlife hospital for animals like these - you can make a donation here.

"Every donation helps," Hurd said.

Learn more about humane options here.

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation Center