That’s the spirit: drunk raccoon found passed out in liquor store
A Virginia liquor store employee was astonished when he turned up to work on Saturday to find a raccoon passed out on the floor, after a raucous night spent knocking back booze.
Five years ago, 14 elephants passed out in China after indulging in corn wine. Wild chimpanzees have also been spotted enjoying alcohol. But you may not know that raccoons, too, have a taste for booze. And no, this isn’t a sponsored retelling of Noah’s Ark. A liquor store employee truly got the shock of his life in Virginia on Saturday morning when he turned up to work to find a raccoon splayed out on the floor.
What happened? Well, the shattered whiskey bottles scattered across the floor, and the puddles of alcohol, gave it away. The raccoon had enjoyed a pretty raucous night, wetting whiskers with whiskey, and had, simply, had a tipple too many.
Samantha Martin, an officer at a local animal control centre in Ashland, told Global News confirmed that the animal had fallen through the ceiling and then proceeded to knock bottles off the shelf, drink the alcohol inside, before passing out in the toilet stall. It’s happened to the best of us.
Sobering up
“Another day in the life of an animal control officer, I guess,” Martin quipped, able to see the funny side of things.
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The Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter confirmed that the raccoon later sobered up. They praised Martin for her efforts – she was the one who brought the raccoon to the animal centre.
“After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer,” the agency said.
Spirit animals
A recent study from the University of Exeter revealed that incidents of wildlife consuming alcohol are “much more abundant” than previously thought. In fact, it’s almost a daily occurrence in the ecosystem, with the majority of animals that eat sugary fruits and nectar also likely to be drinking ethanol regularly.
In 2013, a feral pig wreaked havoc at an Australian campsite after knocking back up to 18 cans of beer before storming on a drunken rampage – starting a fight with a cow.
In 2017, police in the east Indian state of Bihar reported that rats had run riot, consuming thousands of litres of impounded alcohol, after gnawing off the bottle caps. There’s also been ponies getting merry in Kent pubs, beer-soaked badgers, hungover hedgehogs and giddy gorillas,
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