50 Funny Animals Who Got Stuck And Required Human Assistance

Although scrolling through pictures of animals getting stuck in weird places is really entertaining, we have to remember that for your furry friend, it may not be as funny. It turns out that two to three pets in the U.S. die every week from suffocation, and most pet owners aren't even aware of the risk. Of course, not every place or the item is dangerous to an animal, per se. A dog standing on top of the kitchen counter or a kitty stuck in the sofa crease will probably not do any harm, but getting stuck in some particular things can be really dangerous.

One such dangerous object is any kind of disregarded plastic packaging. Think of bread bags, snack bags, sandwich bags or cereal bags. Dogs and cats are naturally interested into any bag that once contained or still contains some food, so they'll stick their heads in to see what’s waiting there. That’s how the seemingly innocent unattended bags can lead to a tragedy—suffocation.

According to veterinarian Dr. Jeff Werber, when the animals smell a bag of chips, “they pick up the smell and they wanna go in. The more they breathe, it sucks in. And moisture kind of sticks to the inside. And before you know it, it's a vacuum."

In order to make sure your pet is safe at home, you may want to empty any food packaged in bags, such as snacks and cereal, into sealed containers like Tupperware. Most importantly, before throwing away any type of bag, whether it’s a chip bag or cereal bag, snip it. Snip it down the side and across the bottom so the bag becomes completely open and flat.

If you find your pet in a situation where he’s suffocating, you must act immediately. Quickly determine if his head’s stuck in a bag, jar or can. Either cut the object off quickly, or in the case of a jar, you may want to try lubricating it. If the pet loses consciousness, it may be time to start CPR and head to the vet.

Another particularly dangerous object your cat can get stuck in is tilt-and-turn windows. Cats can try to climb outside using a tilting window. In many cases, they lose grip because of the smooth frame and fall into the gap of the tilted window. This can have dramatic consequences. When your cat gets stuck, this can lead to suffocation or damage to the spinal cord.

In such cases, cats will start to resist in an attempt to free themselves. However, this does not work and can only increase the harm done. The best solution is to prevent the cat from getting stuck in the narrowest part of the window or to completely prevent a cat from climbing out of the window.