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Some hunting dogs found themselves in some difficult sitations last week before being rescued by Glasgow volunteer firefighters.
One dog had fallen into a sinkhole; another set of dogs had become stranded on ice-covered rocks. Both rescues involved some well-thought-out and careful procedures.
Chief John Hill said the Glasgow Volunteer Fire Department’s first dog rescue call came last Wednesday from the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office animal control officer.
A dog, Bradley’s Hardtime Bonus, had fallen into a large sinkhole on a farm in the Effinger area where her owner had taken her hunting the night before.
Using ropes and belay systems (tying ropes to a person), the firefighters lowered Glasgow Deputy Chief John Ellington into the sinkhole. “She (the dog) was so excited to see her rescuer descending into the hole where she spent the night,” Hill wrote on the department’s Facebook post about the incident.
The crew, he said, was able to quickly bring the dog to the surface with no injures. She rewarded the five firefighters with wags of her tail and licks.
Later that day, the department was also called to retrieve hunting hounds from ice-covered rocks in the Thunder Ridge Wilderness Area near Arnolds Valley.
The six dogs – Lucky, Dirty, Tonka, Guiness, Champ, and Charlotte – had followed a bear they had been hunting through uncharted territory. Along the way, the dog pack got separated and stuck about 80 yards away from each other, creating two areas of retrieval for the men, Hill said. The dogs were trapped for two days and after one of the hunters got injured while trying to save them, the department was called to the rescue.
As ice covered the ground and rocks, eight members of the GVFD wore ice cleats to gain access to the pups in these dangerous conditions. Rope technicians set anchors and belay systems to haul the crew and dogs up and down off the rocks, Hill said. The rescue was accomplished over two days with Dirty and Lucky being saved on the first evening and Tonka, Guiness, Champ and Charlotte being reached mid-day on Thursday. The task was successfully executed without major injuries to the pups or GVFD crew.
After such rescues, the firefighters are often asked why they risk so much to rescue animals, said Hill in a Facebook posting. “Our response is, every life matters and we have taken an oath to protect life and property, and that’s what we do!”
