Ontario Men Receive Award for Saving Skunk With Head Stuck in Soda Can

PETA Reminds Everyone to Protect Wildlife by Crushing Cups and Cans

For Immediate Release:
May 1, 2018

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Compassionate Action Awards are on their way from PETA to Karl Andrews and Jack Adams for working together to rescue a skunk whose head was stuck inside a soda can in Arnprior. On the morning of April 23, Andrews was leaving for work when he noticed a skunk in his backyard who was struggling to free his head from a soda can. He went to work but couldn’t stop thinking about the skunk, so he returned home and carefully maneuvered the distressed animal into a container. He then enlisted the help of his coworker Adams, and the two men drove the skunk to a wooded area away from the road. In this video filmed by Andrews, Adams opens the container and pulls the soda can off the skunk’s head, and shortly after, the unencumbered animal wanders off after sniffing around for a bit.

“Karl Andrews and Jack Adams showed competency and compassion for this imperiled skunk, who could easily have experienced a miserable death by starvation, dehydration, or being hit by a car,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA hopes this story will inspire everyone to come to the aid of animals in need and always crush cans and cups before throwing them in the trash.”

PETA has tips on its website for living in harmony with wildlife and disposing of trash properly, including by tightly sealing all garbage in chew-proof containers, rinsing out aluminum cans and dropping the pop-tops inside so that they can’t cut an animal’s tongue, crushing cans and cups, putting the tops back on bottles, and cutting open empty cardboard and plastic containers so that small animals can’t get their faces or heads trapped inside them.

Andrews and Adams will each receive a framed certificate, a box of delicious vegan cookies, and a handful of PETA’s recycling bin stickers.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.