North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Abseil pet rescues common
Cliffs pose a risk for pets on the Shore, Nicole Lawton finds
Fire fighters on the North Shore are well acquainted with abseiling, thanks to the number of pets in the area and proximity to sheer cliffs.
Local fire crews rescued a total of 16 cats, six dogs and one bird in the area last year.
Several of those were vertical rescues - from the cliffs lining the east coast from Shakespear point all the way down to Milford.
Nick Penfold, station officer at East Coast Bays fire station, said cats were usually pretty good at saving themselves, but not dogs.
‘‘We had one incident around March last year where a labradorcross had gone over the cliff after chasing birds, but had luckily been caught by a bush about halfway down.’’
Crews were able to abseil down about 10 metres, grab the pup, and descend the rest of the way to return it to a relieved owner.
A similar scenario happened this January when the fire crews were called to save 11-month-old Tonkinese cat Charlie.
Charlie had been missing for 13 days when he was spotted perched halfway down a cliff-face below his home in Torbay.
Again, a firefighter abseiled 15 metres down the cliff to grab Charlie, who was so pleased to be rescued that he practically jumped at his rescuer.
His owner also thought he could have been chasing birds.
Fire and Emergency NZ records showed North Shore fire fighters weren’t the only ones being resourceful when in came to rescuing pets and placating desperate owners.
In the past year, crews utilised everything from tractors and hydraulic cutters to a mop in animal rescues across the country.
‘‘There are so many circumstances where people go to great lengths to free their animals,’’ Fire spokesman Paul Radden said.
‘‘For example, if it’s a pet cat stuck behind a hot water cylinder, people generally have no qualms with us knocking down half the house to get to it - I’m the same. I’d bulldoze my house to save my cat if I had to.’’
Of the 428 rescues performed in 2017, 188 were cats, 128 dogs, 42 horses, 22 birds, 18 ducks, 17 cows, five ‘‘unknown’’ animals, four possums, two goats, one chicken and one hedgehog.
Of Auckland’s 154 animal rescues, one came from the Papatoetoe crew, who rescued 10-week-old Iko, an MPI detector dog in training.
The beagle pup had its head trapped between a fence and a pathway. After a reasonable amount of levering, Iko was released, bouncing back quickly from his ordeal.
‘‘I'd bulldoze my house to save my cat if I had to.’’
Paul Radden, Fire and Emergency