Paramedics Receive PETA Award for Saving Squirrel With Head Stuck in Plastic Cup

PETA Reminds Everyone to Protect Wildlife by Crushing Cups and Cans

For Immediate Release:
August 17, 2016

Contact:
Diane Hsiung 202-483-7382

Enfield, Conn. –

Compassionate Action Awards are on their way from PETA to Ralph Armstrong and Keith Taylor of the Enfield EMS after the two men worked together on August 12 to free a squirrel whose head was stuck in a plastic yogurt cup. A widely-shared Facebook video shows the two rescuers using a blanket to catch the frantic squirrel and remove the cup, allowing the animal to run off into the trees unharmed.

“These rescuers’ kindness and quick thinking saved this squirrel from the pain and terror of slowly starving to death or being run over by a car, unable to see around the cup stuck on his head,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA reminds everyone to crush cans and cups before throwing them in the trash, in order to protect wildlife from getting trapped inside.”

Armstrong and Taylor will each receive a framed certificate and delicious vegan cookies.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has tips on its website for living in harmony with wildlife and properly disposing of trash, such as by keeping all garbage in tightly sealed chew-proof containers, rinsing out aluminum cans and putting the tops inside so that they can’t cut an animal’s tongue, crushing cans and cups, and cutting open empty cardboard and plastic containers so that small animals can’t get their faces or heads trapped inside them.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.