Toronto Tiktok Of Woman Carrying A Raccoon Goes Viral & Animal Services Is Urging Caution

Toronto is well known for having a large population of raccoons and it's no secret that some people love the furry little creatures, but showing affection from afar and up close are two very different things.

A Tiktok in Toronto has gone viral showing a woman picking up what looks to be a rather tame raccoon off of the street and carrying it onto a nearby sidewalk — an act celebrated in the video as a form of heroism, but something officials urge should not be repeated.

In the video posted on December 13, a raccoon can be seen sitting halfway between a bike lane and what appears to be a busy downtown Toronto street.

A woman then leans down to scoop up the wild animal, helped by the cheers of her friends who are off-camera.

"Oh baby, come on, you're not going to hurt me," the woman said as she picked up the raccoon.

"He's ok, he's like a dog. He's like a big dog!" another person can be heard shouting.

The woman can be seen taking the raccoon several steps away behind a nearby fence before putting it back down.

As of late Wednesday, the Tiktok video had been viewed well over 700,000 times with all kinds of reactions in the comments.

"Drunk people don't give af about rabies," one person wrote, while others shared their obvious love for trash pandas and one person wanted to know "how soft" the animal was.

And some immediately pointed out the obvious dangers of what the woman did.

"This was so incredibly dangerous but thanks for getting the poor thing out of traffic," wrote one user. "That big dog coulda ripped ur friend apart but yeah😍," someone else said, making light of one comment that was made in the video.

It's no surprise that what this woman did isn't exactly recommended.

"How kind of the woman, and how sad for the raccoon," said Nathalie Karvonen, the Executive Director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre, in an email to Narcity. "Not that she helped it off the street, but more that it appears to me to have advanced distemper. That’s pretty much the only reason raccoons act that way."

Toronto has been dealing with an issue of dead raccoons due to a distemper outbreak this fall.

Similar to the guidance that can be found on the city's website about interacting with wild raccoons, Karvonen said animal service would not recommend picking up any type of wild animal due to the likelihood of being bitten or scratched, and the possibility of a rabies infection "which is an added element of risk."

Despite the temptation to save a raccoon in this state, she offered a rather sad reality of the situation.

"If this raccoon was suffering from advanced distemper, the kindest thing to do would be humane euthanasia," Karvonen said. "It’s a fatal, non-treatable disease and it’s highly contagious to other raccoons and some other animals."

Anyone else that finds themselves in a similar situation is advised to call Toronto Animal Services and if help isn't available immediately, Karonen said it's best "to put something like an upside down blue bin over the raccoon, with a heavy weight on top" to keep the animal safe and in one step so it can be properly tended to by a professional.