Underdog rescued from the Big Hole
It is unclear how the animal ended up in the open mine
THE daring rescue yesterday of a dog that fell into the Big Hole in Kimberley about eight days ago continued to capture the imagination and hearts of South Africans and others around the world.
The final push of the rescue mission lasted for nearly five hours. People took to social media site Twitter to comment on the drama, and many from as far away as the Congo, Portugal and Australia followed the bid to save the animal, which was dubbed by tweeters as Underdog.
The rescue team, comprising personnel from ER24 and the police’s dog unit, eventually managed to abseil down the 200m high cliffs to get to the traumatised canine, which was stuck on a ledge.
The dog — which miraculously survived the steep fall into the hole — was spotted by visitors to the tourist attraction.
It was swimming around in an apparent attempt to find a way out, and found the ledge where it could rest.
Warrant Officer John Seeley was finally able to reach the exhausted and scared animal, which initially jumped back into the water in a bid to escape the policeman.
Seeley swam after it, coaxed it back towards him and worked on calming it.
Seeley, a dog handler, said afterwards that he used “all sorts of soppy words” to get the dog to swim towards him.
“I called her beautiful dog, baby dog, lovely dog,” he said in an interview that was uploaded to You Tube. “Eventually she came to me and as soon as we made contact through touch, she accepted me,” he said.
The exhausted canine immediately stopped swimming and Seeley strapped her into a harness. He had to carry her while he swam back to the ledge.
The dog was then winched to the rim of the hole, where it was met by a cheering crowd.
The dog was taken to the Kimberley SPCA where she was placed on a drip. The SPCA will try to trace her owners, but if they cannot be located, the dog will be put up for adoption.
And from the reaction on Twitter, it looks like the mutt will be able to pick and choose from the legions of fans who have offered to adopt her.
During the rescue, she was given various names. A Bloemfontein newspaper held an impromptu naming poll, with Kaptein and Captain Seeley, after her rescuer, coming up tops.
It is not clear how the dog managed to get into the hole, and an investigation will be launched by mining giant De Beers, which owns the property,
I called her beautiful dog, baby dog. Eventually she came to me
and the municipality.
There will also be an investigation into why it took so long to rescue the dog.
Initial attempts were called off when the ropes that were being used were too short. Plans to use a helicopter were also abandoned because it was deemed too dangerous.
Kimberley residents posted on Twitter that they heard her howling as hunger set in.
Afrikaans singer Kurt Darren and his wife, Dunay, were praised after they offered to pay for the rescue effort.
The Big Hole was formed between 1871 and 1914 by thousands of prospectors who, armed with nothing more than picks, shovels and hope, created the largest man-made excavation in the world.
The hole produced 2 720kg of diamonds, has a surface of 17ha and is 463m wide.
It was excavated to a depth of 240m, then partially filled in with debris, reducing its depth to about 215m. Since then it has accumulated about 40m of water, leaving 175m of the hole visible. Some of the tweets included:
@Raathman: Legend has it that #underdog has always been in the ground and in fact created the big hole while looking for a bone
@SamuelPrinsloo: Sitting in the Congo following #underdog #grootgat It’s been a while since humanity really did something nice
@PaulRotherhamZA: Sit. Stay. Any trend on Twitter has to be better than the recent barking mad political hash tags we’ve had to endure. Good boy. #underdog