Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter
Earlier this week, the world was treated to the perfect news story courtesy of a raccoon that was found passed out in the bathroom of a liquor store in Virginia. It ended up at an animal shelter before being released, and that refuge has gotten a massive windfall courtesy of its drunken hijinks.
As someone who’s spent 15 years writing things on the internet for other people’s reading pleasure, I’ve come across countless articles that fall under the “Weird News” umbrella while developing a sixth sense for the kinds of stories that have the potential to make the internet collectively lose its mind.
That was certainly the case with the one I came across after clocking into the content mines on Tuesday, as the alarm bells started ringing when saw a Facebook post concerning a raccoon that had managed to make its way into a state-run liquor store in Ashland, Virginia before breaking some bottles, licking up the contents, and promptly passing out next to the toilet in the bathroom.
The animal sobered up at a shelter in Hanover County before heading back out into the wild, and it inadvertently helped them raise a ton of money after becoming a viral sensation.
The animal shelter that rescued a drunk raccoon from a liquor store bathroom has made a ton of money by selling “Trashed Panda” merch
Animal control officers affiliated with the Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter were dispatched to the ABC store where the raccoon was found on Saturday, and it didn’t take long for them to capitalize on the attention they received after the furry intruder became a veritable celebrity.
The shelter linked up with Bonfire to start selling shirts emblazoned with a cartoon of the raccoon next to a bottle of booze and the phrase “Trashed Panda” (a play on the animals’ “trash panda” nickname), promising to redirect all proceeds to care and enrichment, field officer training, and equipment.
That turned out to be a pretty good idea, as the shelter shared an update on Friday morning while revealing it has raised nearly $100,000 for those admirable causes in just a couple of days.
You love to see it.