Watch: Rochester Cop Rescues Skunk Stuck in Yogurt Container

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This story has been updated:

The Internet is crushing over Rochester Police Officer Merlin Taylor because of the kindness he showed a lowly, much-maligned species Sunday.

Taylor became an unlikely hero when he responded to a call from a citizen who was concerned about a skunk in distress on Third Street, Rochester Police Chief Steve Schuttenhelm told Patch.

When Taylor arrived at the scene about 8:15 a.m., he found the skunk frantically running in circles, its head caught in an empty yogurt container. Taylor approached with firm resolve, jumping back only once before reaching down and deftly removing the container from the hapless animal’s head.

“There were two levels of concern,” Schuttenhelm said “You don’t want to be bit or scratched, but just as important, you sure don’t want to be sprayed by a skunk.”

After the rescue, the department posted a video of the encounter on the department’s Facebook page. Officers don’t go into situations like Sunday’s skunk rescue wondering “how this will play on Facebook,” Schuttenhelm said, but if they had, they couldn’t have scripted a better response.

The video has gone viral with thousands of shares and hundred of comments, resulting in a story on “Today” and in other national media.

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Schuttenhelm said the national spotlight illuminates the everyday heroics of police officers across the country at a time when law enforcement officials from Ferguson, MO, to Baltimore to Detroit are under increased scrutiny. The skunk rescue epitomizes neighborhood policing at its best, the chief said.

“These things are happening all over the country,” he said. “Police officers do these kinds of things every day to make their communities better places to live.

“We hope people see this as more typical than out of the ordinary,” Schuttenhelm continued. “It’s the (brutality reports) that are rare. This more typifies what’s happening on a daily basis with officers.”

It’s unclear how the skunk became trapped, but skunks are extremely nearsighted, according to animal experts.

Baby skunks don’t spray – the animal equivalent of passing wind – unless they’re injured, according to animal experts. And when alarmed, adult skunks often give a warning sign by stamping their front feet. They don’t spray indiscriminately or waste their ammunition in non-threatening situations, as it takes the anal glands some time to recharge.

Once free, the baby skunk scampered off to find its mom, the police department said on Facebook.

This wasn’t Taylor’s first rescue. The Rochester Police Department posted a photo on its Facebook post showing the officer rescuing ducklings that had fallen into a sewer grate (below).