By ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
MORWELL Fire Brigade had a unique call out last month, after a Morwell farmer required assistance when one of his cows found herself stuck in the muddy part of a dam.
The brigade attended and upon seeing the predicament, requested for large animal rescue equipment from the Macclesfield CFA Brigade to come in and assist on Sunday, March 24.
The Macclesfield brigade have specialised equipment to get large animals out from this exact situation.
Morwell Fire Brigades 4th Lieutenant, Aaron Yates responded to the very unusual call out.
“Through 22-and-a-half-years of CFA, I’ve never done a cow rescue before,” he said.
“We were paged in the afternoon, Macclesfield’s Lieutenant had already been responded about two-and-a-half-hours before us.”
After many hours and many calls, the landowner had no success trying to pull the cow out from its slippery situation.
“There was six firefighters from Morwell CFA that had responded and two firefighters from Macclesfield CFA and no machinery besides manual labour from our crews,” Lieutenant Yates said.
With the cow stuck in the mud for some time and showing visible signs of distress, CFA crews had to act quickly.
“Once we had the right equipment there, it took us probably about 40 minutes to get the cow out of the dam,” Lieutenant Yates said.
Once set free on wobbly legs, the cow happily returned to the rest of the herd.
The Morwell farmer was incredibly grateful for the CFA’s help.
“Any day that I’m paged out … going out to help someone in need – it’s an enjoyment,” Lieutenant Yates said.
“I’m pretty sure I can speak on behalf of the Morwell Brigades that we like to assist the Morwell community and greater (community) in any emergency that they have.”
At last: The cow was freed and went on its merry way.
