There Was A Memorial For A Dead Raccoon Left On The Street In Toronto (Photos)

A dead raccoon united the city of Toronto.

A bunch of playful Canadians spent Thursday erecting a touching memorial to a raccoon that passed away on the streets of Toronto.

It all started when Toronto resident Jason Wagar decided to alert the city to the Canadian roadkill.

@311Toronto There's a dead raccoon on the sidewalk outside 819 Yonge (at the SE corner of Church). — Jason Wagar (@jasonwagar) July 9, 2015

After almost six hours, the raccoon still wasn't removed.

Someone decided leaving the animal on the street wasn't a dignified way to let the raccoon leave this world, so a note was written and placed beside the body.

More Torontonians flocked to the makeshift animal wake to pay their respects, and thus, #DeadRaccoonTO was started.

sleep well my sweet prince, people loved you and remember you #deadraccoonto pic.twitter.com/G7erlbktnx — Chris Hahn (@heyhahn) July 9, 2015

While some residents were angry with the city for not clearing up the memorial...

@norm @311Toronto 8:20 pm. Come on, Animal Services. pic.twitter.com/3RPc1XdX50 — Jason Wagar (@jasonwagar) July 10, 2015

…City of Toronto Councillor Norm Kelly had a pretty fun time with the situation.

Residents are being asked to keep their green bins open tonight in honour of #DeadRaccoonTO. — Norm Kelly (@norm) July 10, 2015

Drake reacting to #DeadRaccoonTO. pic.twitter.com/t7EDv6rdFu — Norm Kelly (@norm) July 10, 2015

Even memes paying tribute to the raccoon (named Conrad) started to make their way across the Web.

#DeadRaccoonTO#JohnSnow#ForTheWatch#RIPpic.twitter.com/uT0ZHZaxtk — July 12 (@Bellaegure) July 10, 2015

A donation box was even set up next to the raccoon to pay for a proper burial.

Someone has added a donation box beside the dead raccoon. #DeadRaccoonTO pic.twitter.com/fXHzcf9LJu — Kris Pangilinan (@KrisReports) July 10, 2015

Eventually, the city realized, although it enjoyed the social media push #DeadRaccoonTO was giving it, having a rotting corpse on the street probably wasn't a good long-term idea.

So, someone stepped in and removed the memorial.

Here is The City of Toronto worker removing the raccoon. #DeadRaccoonTO pic.twitter.com/nwbgOIIEQB — Kris Pangilinan (@KrisReports) July 10, 2015

And Norm Kelly went back to the Web to have a sit-down talk with his followers.

#DeadRaccoonTO is now gone but will never be forgotten. Picture courtesy of @KrisReports. #RIP pic.twitter.com/eWwASq8C5M — Norm Kelly (@norm) July 10, 2015

Damn. Life's so short. — Norm Kelly (@norm) July 10, 2015

The raccoon was laid to rest later that night.

BREAKING: #DeadRaccoonTO being laid to rest in Ottawa pic.twitter.com/Mi9Qgo2JDQ — MadAsHell™ (@rpjohnson001) July 10, 2015

Citations: People in Toronto Have Created a Memorial to a Dead Raccoon Left on the Street (Time)