Carpenter Fired for Setting Trapped Raccoon Free

A carpenter has been fired for freeing a raccoon that had been trapped by exterminators at the San Francisco construction site where he worked. Todd Sutton says he came to work one morning in late February and saw the animal inside a trap. The builders had hired professional trappers to have the critter—which was blamed for damage at the $610 million project—removed and euthanized. But the 49-year-old carpenter says he put the animal in his truck and later released it in a nearby grassy area, after getting guidance from animal control officers.

"I was just doing what I thought was right," Sutton tells San Francisco Chronicle. "He was just a little baby. I said, 'I’m not going to let this happen. I’m going to do what is necessary for this raccoon.'" His employer told the newspaper the move amounted to theft, because Sutton took something from the site that didn't belong to him. Sutton has lawyered up and gotten another job, per the Chronicle. "I'd do the same thing again. This whole thing was just nuts." (More raccoons stories.)