The incident took place at the Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre, run in the village of Raczkowa near Legnica by the FOPiT-GOBI Foundation for Nature Protection and Tourism Development. Under cover of darkness, an unknown perpetrator cut through the mesh and stole Pompon and Kitka, a pair of raccoons cared for by the organisation.
The animals came to the centre as newborns. The foundation’s staff managed to raise them with a bottle. A decision was made not to put them to sleep, but instead to try to tame them. This worked wonderfully: Pompon and Kitka felt very comfortable in human company. Unfortunately, this made things extraordinarily easy for the thief. It is highly likely that they immediately began fawning over the perpetrator.
The staff are deeply upset because they had become very attached to their raccoons. They have offered PLN 1,000 for information leading to the identification of the thief.
Interestingly, an attempted raccoon theft took place at a similar centre in Puchaczówka near Wrocław. That attempt failed, however, because those animals were accustomed only to their owners and reacted aggressively to strangers. What is more, when the thieves broke onto the centre’s grounds, the birds raised the alarm. The owner woke up and scared the criminals away.
More information is available on the Foundation’s website.