A plaque honouring the 10th anniversary of Conrad the Raccoon, whose body was found on a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ sidewalk in July 2015, is pictured on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Natasha Baldin
Raccoon whose sidewalk death went viral in 2015 immortalized in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s history
TORONTO - Ten years ago, a dead raccoon on a downtown ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ street sparked an impromptu sidewalk shrine as passersby laid flowers, candles and cigarettes around the critter.
A plaque honouring the 10th anniversary of Conrad the Raccoon, whose body was found on a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ sidewalk in July 2015, is pictured on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Natasha Baldin
TORONTO - Ten years ago, a dead raccoon on a downtown ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ street sparked an impromptu sidewalk shrine as passersby laid flowers, candles and cigarettes around the critter.
Now, Conrad the raccoon has been immortalized in the city’s history with a heritage plaque at the spot where it all happened.Â
Conrad went viral in 2015 after his remains laid on the sidewalk at the corner of Yonge and Church streets for nearly 14 hours following a social media post reporting the dead animal to the city.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
In 2015, a dead raccoon on a downtown ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ street sparked an impromptu sidewalk shrine as passersby laid flowers, candles and cigarettes around the critter. Now, Conrad the raccoon has been immortalized in the city's history with a heritage plaque at the spot where it all happened. (June 22, 2025)
The Canadian Press
Meg Sutton, plaques co-ordinator with Heritage ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, says the 10th anniversary of Conrad’s death is the perfect occasion to revive the raccoon’s story, which she says united Canadians across the country.
The plaque includes photos of the posts that launched the DeadRaccoonTO hashtag, imprints of raccoon paws and a QR code that leads to a website where people can post their own raccoon stories.
As the first-ever animal plaque in the city, Sutton says it also serves to highlight the natural history of raccoons in urban spaces.
In the early 1900s, industrialization and deforestation caused such a threat to the raccoon population that people worried the creatures would go extinct, she said.Â
“Now, raccoons have become so adaptable and resilient that they’ve made their homes in attics and sheds, they’ve found new diet sources and human-discarded food, and they’ve just become these cheeky personalities that run amok,” Sutton said Tuesday in an interview.
So far, more than 400 people have scanned the QR code on Conrad’s plaque and the web page has been visited more than 1,000 times.Â
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
After a month, a permanent version of the plaque will be installed to replace the QR code with life-size raccoon prints since the QR code requires maintenance and upkeep, Sutton said.
Promoting community engagement was the main goal of the plaque, she said, since “everyone has a raccoon story in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.”
“Conrad is one for the people, where he represents a lot of individual moments or interactions,” Sutton said.
“And I think we all kind of fell in love with him.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation