Firefighters rescue dog with leg stuck in a trampoline

EVERYBODY knows firefighters sometimes get called to rescue cats stuck in trees but crews in Coventry have been called to deal with much more unusual creaturess.

A police dog impaled on a fence and a pigeon hanging upside down from a television aerial were animal emergencies for Coventry firefighters.

The service answered 47 calls to animals in distress between May 2013 and March 2017.

A police dog was working in Holbrooks when it became impaled on a fence. Firefighters and a vet came to the rescue.

A pigeon got itself tangled by one foot in a TV aerial needing firefighters to get on to the roof and set it free.

It wasn’t the only bird to get in a fix. A crow became tangled in a tree by its wing.

A gull got stuck 15ft off the ground tangled in fishing wire and a bird on wasteland found itself wrapped up in wire.

Animals getting trapped inside vehicles was a repeated problem. There was a dog trapped under the seat of a Renault Scenic, two dogs trapped in the cab of a pick up truck and a kitten behind a car steering column.

A Jack Russell managed to get its paw stuck down a plug hole while a kitten got stuck behind sink pipework.

There were five calls to cats stuck up trees.

At one of the cats stuck in trees calls, to the Westwood area of the city, a cat lover threatened to scale the tree herself to rescue the creature until firefighters assured her they were the best people for the job. A kitten in a gas cooker, a pregnant cat down a bin chute and dog with its leg stuck in a trampoline were other problems the firefighters had to solve. West Midlands Fire Service bosses estimate each animal rescue costs about £430. A spokesperson for West Midlands Fire Service said: “We work closely with the RSPCA to understand each other’s main responsibilities, to help us make informed decisions and to respond to incidents appropriately. “Incidents that don’t involve fire or a risk to human life might not be assessed as an emergency, and we may charge for responding to some non-emergency calls. “Small animal rescues are the responsibility of the RSPCA, who should always be the first port of call.”

There was a dog trapped under the seat of a Renault Scenic and a kitten stuck behind a car steering column...