As far as hangovers go, it’s about the best you could hope for: The Hanover County Animal Protection & Shelter in Virginia has raised $170,560 in just 72 hours by selling over 15,000 pieces of “Trashed Panda” merchandise—hoodies, mugs, stickers, and T-shirts, all featuring a raccoon sprawled on its stomach, paws splayed in every direction, next to a toppled bottle of booze.
The merchandise pays homage to the sloshed raccoon that made headlines last week after going on a boozy romp at an ABC liquor store in Ashland, Virginia, ransacking shelves before blacking out face-down in the store’s restroom. ABC employees called in Hanover County Animal Protection, and the raccoon was given a chance to sober up before animal control sent it back into the wild, but not before snapping a photograph of the critter.
Within 39 minutes, it went viral on Facebook. Calls flooded in from reporters across the country—and as far away as France, London, Canada, and the Netherlands—and the online platform Bonfire reached out to help turn the image into merchandise. The post has since racked up 12,000 likes on Facebook, and the raccoon even caught the attention of SNL star Sarah Sherman, who dressed as the critter for a chaotic “Weekend Update” segment.
“We never thought this would happen,” said Chief of Animal Protection Jeffrey S. Parker. “Not saying we get racoons out of ABC stores on a regular basis, but we deal with raccoons every day, so it was a typical day for us in a way. But we’re definitely excited and over the moon to have the funds raised, and we’ll definitely put them to good use.”
At a time when many animal shelters have been overwhelmed with surrendered pets as the cost of living rises, the Hanover facility is still brainstorming how to make the most of the money, floating ideas like upgrading water quality and redoing the bathtub to give the animals a proper scrub-down.
The shelter isn’t the only entity capitalizing on the viral moment. Virginia ABC released three cocktail recipes inspired by the mischievous raccoon: Rye Rascal Sour, Trash Panda Old Fashioned, and Midnight Masked Gin Fizz.
While the raccoon’s antics have caught the public’s imagination, it was not the only unusual animal encounter in Virginia last week. On Tuesday, a Richmond cat café closed for the year after a five-month-old kitten turned on a sink, flooding the place and causing extensive damage, according to the New York Post. No word on whether Sarah Sherman will be dressing up as the kitten on SNL.
