The Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center attempted the rescue of a trapped raccoon over the weekend.
The wildlife center received a call on Saturday afternoon that a young raccoon had become trapped inside of a 30 foot steel pole at the Southeast Baseball Complex during a game. Volunteers from the organization went to the site and worked throughout the afternoon and night to save the raccoon.
When the call for a bucket truck and a 30 foot ladder went out on Facebook, a truck was provided by Amarillo Pressure Wash. A ladder was provided by the Amarillo Pioneer.
Volunteers used both the ladder and truck to work on attempting to save the raccoon. Volunteers called City staff about cutting a hole in the pole to allow the raccoon to escape and City staff would not authorize the cut. Members of the Amarillo City Council were also called by onlookers and volunteers, but no member of the council responded.
City Council members did not return our requests for comment on the night of the incident.
Toward the end of the tournament, sometime around 10pm, the raccoon made an appearance after climbing into the top part of the pole. It is suspected that the raccoon became startled and fell back inside of the pole after climbing to the top.
After volunteers attempted to use water to coax the raccoon out of the pole, staff from the baseball complex asked the volunteers to leave due to the end of the tournament.
Bystanders on Facebook later reported that the raccoon was finally able to climb out of the pole during Sunday's tournament, but that statement has not been verified by the Amarillo Pioneer.
Wild West Wildlife Center later posted on Facebook, saying, "Thank you again to everyone who came out to help. Sometimes it is a hard balance when deciding whether to intervene or not. However, due to his age and over a dozen calls from spectators at the game we felt it was the right thing to do."
For more information about the Wild West Wildlife Center, please visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wildwestwildliferehabilitation/.
