Last December, a raccoon was found passed out in a bathroom in Virginia. The raccoon had broken into a Richmond liquor store and gone on what was clearly a wild drinking spree.
Many people started calling it a trashed panda as they love to go through dumpsters.
Hanover County Animal Protection shared the story on Facebook after one of their officers was called to remove the raccoon from the store. The story took the internet by storm and also inspired a fundraiser to raise funds for the raccoon shelter. To everyone’s surprise, around $180,000 has been raised.
“On Saturday morning, Officer Martin responded to an unusual call at the Ashland ABC Store. Upon arrival, she discovered the ‘suspect’ had broken in, ransacked several shelves, and then… passed out in the bathroom,” Hanover County Animal Protection first wrote on Facebook on December 2nd.
“Officer Martin safely secured our masked bandit and transported him back to the shelter to sober up before questioning. 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.”
After this incident, a company called Bonfire started selling trashed panda merchandise. Bonfire lets people put their designs on items like hoodies and tumblers. All the money from sales went to the animal shelter in Hanover.
By December 5th, the fundraiser had made $100,000.
Each shirt, hoodie, or coffee mug showed an artistic version of the collapsed raccoon from Officer Martin’s photo, lying next to an open liquor bottle with a hashtag for the animal shelter.
The total eventually reached $180,000. All of this money will help support the animals at the shelter and train officers to respond to the next trashed panda or any other animal that needs help.
