Dog saved from steep cliffside

Firefighters covered 22 kilometres of rough terrain in wet, cold weather, carrying over 150 kilograms of gear, to rescue a dog trapped on a South Canterbury cliff.

Prince, a black labrador-eye dog cross, was stuck on the side of a cliff on Mt Nessing, near Albury, for more than 12 hours on Wednesday night, having ‘‘run off after a pig’’ while hunting with its owner, Timaru senior firefighter Richard Sullivan said.

‘‘Once he got down he couldn’t get back up.’’

Sullivan said ‘‘super steep’’.

It took three members of the the cliff was Fairlie Volunteer Fire Brigade and four members of the Timaru Fire Service about 40 minutes to rescue Prince, Timaru senior station officer Garry Parker said.

He was about five metres down the side of a 25-30 metre drop to the Pareora River, Parker said.

Prince was not injured but was ‘‘very hungry, very tired and his owners were very pleased to have him back’’.

About 80 metres of rope was used to rescue Prince, with one member from the Fairlie brigade abseiling down to reach the distressed dog.

The Timaru Fire Service was alerted at around 3.30pm on Wednesday about the incident, by the Fairlie brigade, Fire Service Mid-South Canterbury assistant area manager Steven Greenyer said.

By the time the call came through it was near dark and crews decided to wait until the morning to rescue Prince, Greenyer said.

The firefighters drove as far as they could up Mt Nessing Road, then had a 20-minute ride on quad bikes, followed by a 30-minute walk up the mountain to the top of the cliff where Prince was stranded.

‘‘It was a long way in’’, Sullivan said.

Prince was strapped in with a couple of slings and winched up the cliffside to freedom.

The rescuers could hear Prince barking loudly before they got to him.