Animal rescueJersey first responders learn to rescue large animals

Last weekend first responders from Green Village, New Jersey and nearby New Vernon and Madison gained a unique set of skills – rescuing large animals.

With an estimated 300 horses in the area, local first responders have been called in to rescue a horse at least once in the last eighteen months. Without the proper training or expertise, rescuing these large animals can result in injury to both first responders as well as the animals.

For instance last August , Mare Olsen, a resident of Green Village, called 911 after her and her husband failed in rescuing their horse that had fallen into a ditch and could not get out.

Madison, New Vernon, and Green Village fire departments all responded to the call as well as police, and they were all uncertain of how to free the horse. First responders first had the idea to enlarge the ditch and used a backhoe to dig dirt out from under the horse, but it was still unable to get up.

Eventually according to Olsen, rescue workers used inflatable pillows. “They put one under her hips and one under her chest. Those got her prone, and then she got up by herself and climbed out of that ditch.”

Chip Del Coro, the vice president of the Green Village Fire Department, said the department had never been trained to perform a rescue like that.

“Nobody knew how to get a horse up with a sling,” Choro said.

Following the rescue, Olsen contacted Days End Farm Horse Rescue, an organization in Maryland that specializes in training first responders how to deal with a horse, and they agreed to hold a seminar in New Jersey.

As part of the training held last weekend , first responders learned how to make an impromptu harness from rope and to lift a horse using a fire truck ladder.