A York police officer rescued a skunk in distress during his routine patrol shift this week, but more importantly, he didn’t get sprayed in the process.

The skunk rescue is getting a whole of attention on Facebook. A video of the potentially smelly encounter had more than 27,000 views by late Tuesday night.

According to the Facebook post, motorcycle Officer David McKinnon came across a skunk early Sunday morning at the Short Sands Beach parking lot. The skunk’s head and snout had become trapped tightly inside a paper cup someone had discarded. In the video posted on Facebook, McKinnon is seen trying to pull the cup off the skunk’s head while the skunk uses its tiny paws to push at the cup.

“Oh no, hey Bubba, I got you … pull, pull, pull,” McKinnon is heard saying on the Facebook video that he posted. “There we go, see, you are OK.”

Once the cup is removed, the skunk lifts its tail, apparently in preparation to spray McKinnon. But the skunk reconsiders, turns around and walks off the paved parking lot and into the woods.

“I never thought in a million years. Oh my God. Whoa. That was a first,” McKinnon says.

Sgt. Luke Ernenwein said that McKinnon did a good deed.

“He just happened to see the skunk down there with a cup on its head,” Ernenwein said. “He wanted to help it out and he did.”

Facebook commenters praised McKinnon.

“Very brave,” wrote Pat Touri.

“OMG. So daring. I’d be chicken. Thank you for braving being sprayed and saving the life of the not to bright skunk,” Lynne Doty commented.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com