Eight-year-old Ben after being rescued from the near 20-metre drop down the tomo. Photo / Thomas Williams
Eight-year-old Ben after being rescued from the near 20-metre drop down the tomo. Photo / Thomas Williams
A beloved farm dog has been rescued unhurt after falling 20 metres down a hole on his family’s farm and has quickly become a local legend, his owner says.
Eight-year-old Ben is a cattle-chasing bearded collie who has recently moved a lifestyle block in Te Kūiti. For the past six years he’s been beside his owner, Thomas Williams, who calls him “part of the family”.
Williams said he first realised Ben was missing Tuesday night, but this wasn’t rare for his beloved pet, who was often fond of chasing hares throughout the evening. When he didn’t return on Wednesday morning, Williams knew something was amiss.
“The next morning when I was shifting stock had a look around the tomo again that we were fencing and I could hear a faint sort of banging noise and when I called his name I was pretty sure it was his tail banging away, wagging,” Williams said.
“So then he started to whimper a little bit and I knew he was down the hole.”
A tomo is a shaft often found on farms, formed by water erosion on limestone or volcanic rock.
Williams said it was a mixture of relief and fear when he found the dog down there, so far down he couldn’t even see his pet, and also a little embarrassing.
“It was just sort of a little bit embarrassing because we’d only just moved to the property four weeks ago,” Williams said.
First, the Te Kūiti volunteer fire brigade was called, but when they realised they didn’t have the equipment to pull Ben out, they enlisted the help of the Hamilton level 3 line rescue team.
A rescuer equipped with a dog harness was lowered into the deep hole to rescue Ben. Photo / Thomas Williams
Te Kūiti volunteer fire brigade senior station officer Hayden Sheedy said the firefighters were there as the rescue took place, and called it a “miracle” the dog escaped unscathed.
“So, yeah, [the tomo] was probably 34 metres wide by 15 to 20 metres deep, and quite long,” Sheedy said.
“We couldn’t see the bottom of it. We could hear Ben at the bottom, but couldn’t actually see him.”
A rescuer equipped with a dog harness was lowered into the deep hole and gave a commentary as he went to inform Ben’s scared owner at the top that his pet was found happy and unharmed.
Eight-year-old Ben being rescued after surviving the nearly 20-metre drop down the tomo. Photo / Thomas Williams
Williams joked that Ben had escaped unharmed due to the amount of hair that covered him.
“He’s a pretty fluffy dog, so it might have been all the hair.”
Williams said the story of Ben’s rescue has spread quickly, and he has become a “local legend”.
Ben is now on some much-needed kennel rest. Williams said this could mean an early retirement for his long-time pal, something well deserved after many years of chasing cattle.
“He’s eating and he’s, you know, drinking and, and he’s keen to come back out on the farm, but we’ve got sort of tell him he’s not allowed,” Williams said.
