Horses are responsible for the majority of firefighter injuries on animal rescues since the start of 2020. Photo / File
Horses are responsible for the majority of firefighter injuries on animal rescues since the start of 2020. Photo / File
Thrashing horses pose the most risk to firefighters during animal rescue callouts – followed closely by the humble house cat.
According to information released to the Herald, more than half of the 11 animal-related injuries reported by firefighters since the start of 2020 were caused by horses.
In one incident, an Otago firefighter was hurt when a sedated horse collapsed against them, pinning them to the horse float briefly before the animal stood back up.
Another incident in the Far North involved a horse stuck in a swampy ditch, requiring a small digger to extricate it. The firefighter reported twisting their knee several times in a bid to escape after getting stuck between the thrashing horse and a clay bank.
Other firefighters reported horses standing on their feet, walloping them with their heads, or causing them to sprain ankles.
The comments on one incident report noted there was "only so much training" that could go into animal rescues.
"Each one is different and each animal reacts differently to different circumstances."
Investigation findings in another report noted a degree of risk was "inherent in these extrications" and heightened by "the unpredictable nature of these animals".
But horses weren't the only ones causing injuries, with cats also contributing their fair share.
One firefighter simply reported they had been "bitten by a tiny kitten", while another more dramatically wrote a cat had "lunged its fangs into my wrist".
In previous years, cats have taken the top spot for injuring firefighters, and cat rescues remain the most common type of animal rescue they are called to, with 530 cat rescues between January 2020 and April 2022. The figure is nearly half of the 1117 animal callouts recorded.
Kerry Sinclair gets a strop under Gilbert the horse with help from Kerikeri Fire Brigade and Bay of Islands Vets during Waipapa horse rescue last year. Photo / Jackie Sanders
The next highest proportions of animal callouts came from dogs, birds, horses, and cows, respectively. There were also callouts for donkeys, possums, whales, sheep, and goats.
Aucklanders were the top culprits for asking firefighters to rescue their cats, with 211 cat rescues in the district compared to the next highest number, 45, in Christchurch city.
The job carries more excitement than simply fetching cats from trees though. In one rescue in 2016, volunteer firefighter Arvind Dheda was injured while trying to catch a wandering emu in the streets of Mangawhai.
"It just ran towards me so I grabbed it and took it to the ground as nice as possible," Dheda said in an earlier interview.
"It got its claws behind the back of my leg and ripped my overalls open, gave me a couple of cuts on the back on the leg. I had to stay on top of it until we tied it all up."
The staff member was tasked with helping manage re-entry of teams into the Redwood Valley area to check on animal welfare and properties following the Pigeon Valley fires in Nelson.
He contracted leptospirosis, a disease normally associated with cattle.
Also known as the dairy-farm fever, leptospirosis is a potentially fatal disease that can cause flu-like symptoms and, in severe cases, bleeding from the lungs, meningitis or multiple organ failure.
Orca Research Trust founder Dr Ingrid Visser, centre, and helpers working with baby orca Toa at the Plimmerton boat ramp in Porirua. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Summaries of the more recent callouts attended by firefighters show plenty of trapped cats, runaway birds, and ducklings separated from their mothers.
Dogs stuck down banks and cliffs or sweltering in hot cars, cats self-rescuing from trees and roofs the moment firefighters arrive, and ducklings being flushed out of stormwater drains make up a majority of the reports into callouts.
Firefighters also helped with whale rescues, including that of baby orca Toa, who sadly died after 13 days of care in July last year.
The un-weaned calf was stranded on Wellington's Plimmerton Beach on July 11, and he was transported to a holding pen in the harbour where volunteers stayed in the water with him 24/7 until he died on July 23.
