Moment hearth crews winch horse trapped in ditch to security
This is the moment a horse was today winched to safety after becoming trapped in a ditch after a huge fall in a country field.
Bob had to be hoisted from the boggy ditch in a joint two-hour rescue mission by West Sussex and Surrey fire crews.
Dramatic footage shows fire crews wrapping a harness around the 17-hand stallion before an unimog fire truck carefully lifts him into the air under the watchful eye of a local vet.
A six-man team can be seen gripping onto a rope to hold Bob steady before he was placed onto a rescue board.
Bob was soon pictured safe and well and out of the ditch in Houghton near Arundel this afternoon.
Bob had to be hoisted from the boggy ditch in a joint rescue mission by West Sussex and Surrey fire crews
Dramatic footage shows fire crews wrapping a harness around the 17-hand stallion before an unimog fire truck carefully lifts him into the air under the watchful eye of a local vet
Bob was soon pictured safe and well and out of the ditch in Houghton near Arundel this afternoon.
The rescue took place just three years after Bob arrived in West Sussex having been flown over from Ireland.
In 2015 East and West Sussex fire service mooted the possibility of charging for animal rescues.
It came after crews received a combined 650 animal-related callouts in the period from 2013 to 2015, costing the service £105,000, reported The Argus.
Surrey fire service charges £499.80 for an animal rescue, with a message on its website reading explaining they are not a ‘statutory function of the fire and rescue service’.
‘We have an Animal Rescue Unit and are committed to preventing animal suffering,’ they said.
A six-man team can be seen gripping onto a rope to hold Bob steady before he was placed onto a rescue board
Bob was soon pictured safe and well and out of the ditch in Houghton near Arundel this afternoon
The rescue took place just three years after Bob arrived in West Sussex having been flown over from Ireland
Bob pictured this afternoon after he was safely rescued and back on four legs on dry land
‘We train our firefighters to rescue animals safely and provide the equipment they need to do so.
‘However, this is not a statutory function of the fire and rescue service and we do not receive funding for this. The National Framework for Fire and Rescue in England makes it clear that additional services should not impact on our core service.
‘We are therefore planning to introduce some charges to cover the cost of these types of calls.
‘We also want to work more closely with partners, farmers and animal owners to do our best to prevent incidents involving animals and avoid the need for rescue.’
