Toronto raccoon was able to cut power to nearly 7,000 people in the city’s downtown core last week, highlighting the fraught coexistence between residents of Canada’s largest urban centre and the divisive “trash pandas”. Hydro One, Ontario’s power utility, said a raccoon “made contact with equipment” - this means "probably chewed a cable" - at a downtown station on Thursday night, plunging key areas of the city into darkness. The loss of power also temporarily disrupted service on a key subway line and shut off water. Toronto’s fire service said the power outage also left residents trapped inside elevators.
The outage started at about 7.40pm one evening but was fully resolved three hours later, according to outage maps. The culprit, whose fate remains unknown, will inevitably join the growing pantheon of famed Toronto raccoons: the doughnut thief, the freeloading subway rider, the baseball fan, the airport traveller and the financier.
In recent years, Toronto has declared war on the wily mammals, only to grudgingly accept defeat soon after.
The seemingly indefatigable nature of raccoons, thriving amid the chaos of urban drudgery, has endeared them to half of the city’s residents, with calls to make the raccoon Toronto’s official mascot. The other half of residents, according to a poll, want them euthanised. “They’re the animal we love to hate,” said Suzanne MacDonald, a professor of animal behaviour.
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