Large Animal Rescue Company trains first-responders to help
creatures in need
It was a dozen years ago, but John Fox recalls the incident
clearly. As a captain with the Felton Fire Protection District, he
heard radio traffic about a horse and rider who had gone off the
side of a trail in a local state park.
Large Animal Rescue Company trains first-responders to help creatures in need
It was a dozen years ago, but John Fox recalls the incident clearly. As a captain with the Felton Fire Protection District, he heard radio traffic about a horse and rider who had gone off the side of a trail in a local state park.
The horse was trapped and first responders were struggling to extricate the large animal, having not been trained in such rescues. Fox, an avid horseman, called to offer his assistance, but was told local fire departments couldn’t respond to state parks unless invited.
“The next day, someone told me that if they had the right equipment, they probably could have gotten the horse out,” Fox said. “Everything they needed to help the horse was right there – eight to 10 minutes away – but we couldn’t get there. Nobody took responsibility for larger animals.”
So Fox and his wife, Deb, a fellow firefighter and emergency medical technician in Felton, decided that they could combine their love and knowledge of horses with their medical training to help instruct others in large animal rescues. From a barn on their two-and-one-third acre spread on Buena Vista Road in Hollister, they now run Large Animal Rescue Company.
“All firefighters learn vehicle extraction, ropes, rescue systems,” said Deb, who, along with John, retired from Felton Fire and now volunteers with the San Juan Bautista Fire Department. “It started to make sense that fire departments should get training in adapting their training to large animal rescue. We took our understanding of horse physiology and adapted the knowledge of treating human patients to horse patients.”
The Foxes spend many of their weekends and some of their vacation time training other first-responders in departments throughout the West and Midwest. The two-day, eight-and Midwest. The two-day, eight-hour-per-day courses are open to anyone and include classroom instruction, manipulative skills and scenario training for just under $200. A primary focus is utilizing tools and materials – such as ropes and hoses – that are easily accessible to emergency response crews, and teaching rescue techniques that utilize that equipment.
“We found no standardized training in large animal rescue, so we took what we found and spent almost a year trying it in the field and adapting our techniques to a standard fire engine,” said John, who also serves as a senior investigator with the California Department of Public Health. “We saw what worked and didn’t work. You can accomplish 98 percent of rescues with what’s already on a fire engine.”
The Foxes first developed training guidelines for the Felton Fire District and have since adapted state curriculum development standards to their course to ensure that they are in compliance with rescue protocols.
“We teach people how to look at a scene and determine what equipment is needed,” Deb said. “Having our beginnings in Santa Cruz County, we learned how to use rope systems to help animals. We don’t call it an emergency rescue. It’s a public service call. We get the animals out of a jam to safety so the vet or evacuation people can take over.”
The emphasis of the training the couple offers is on horses, but the methods can be used on any number of animals, including llamas, pigs, goats, and cows. Many of the large animal incidents that occur are not necessarily an emergency situation, such as a horse trailer accident on the highway. Instead, it could be a horse stuck in mud or a cow with its leg caught in a fence.
In their barn, the Foxe s show their modified horse trailer, which they bring on all of their training sessions. It is equipped with a roll bar that allows it to be tipped on its side to simulate a vehicle accident where a horse or other large animal needs to be removed from the wreckage.
Five-hundred pound horse replicas, complete with movable limbs, are used in the training as is a life-sized fiberglass horse that is outlined with a skeleton and internal organs. Knowing where an animal’s bones and organs are located can help rescuers make decisions about where to apply pressure or to tie on straps.
“It gives us an idea of the animals’ internal structure so we can have leverage when moving the horse,” said Deb, noting that she and John go to 16 to 18 such trainings a year, including working with San Benito County’s Equine Assistance Unit, fire departments, animal control agencies and horse owners. “When all of a horse’s weight is on its internal organs, it can impede their circulatory system, which can lead to muscle atrophy and toxins in their system.”
The Foxes don’t directly respond to emergency calls as individuals, but they do assist the San Juan Bautista Fire Department if it receives a call to rescue a trapped or injured large animal. The Felton Large Animal Rescue Unit established by John now assists other jurisdictions in rescue efforts, such as helping the San Jose Fire Department pull a horse out of an aqueduct.
The Large Animal Rescue Company’s training puts a premium on teaching rescue and leverage techniques, such as running a fire hose under a fallen horse’s legs to roll it out of trouble or how to tie ropes to an animal to lift it out of harm’s way.
In a recent local incident, the San Juan Fire Department responded to a stallion stuck in mud up to its belly on Rocks Road. The Foxes used their rescue strap to lift the horse out of the bog enough to reduce the suction on its legs so it could be freed.
“We like to use rope systems rather than heavy equipment,” said Deb, pointing out the time and expense involved in the use of machinery.
John said that critics might say teaching extraction techniques based on ropes and leverage is “old technology.”
“Well, so is the wheel and it still works,” he said. “We’ve saved a lot of horses with this.”
The animal rescue training also shows how to use a large sheet of plastic, called a rescue glide, which acts like a gurney to help an animal that can’t stand.
“We can slide an animal out of a trailer or shoot an X-ray through the glide,” John said.
Knowing the proper techniques can help an animal free itself from a precarious situation.
“With horses, there’s a golden hour, so the quicker you can change that up the better,” Deb said.
The Large Animal Rescue Company recently reached out to the Hollister and San Benito County fire departments to encourage them to get training. They are also hoping to get more funding for the San Juan Fire Department to augment its large animal rescue capabilities.
For more information, go to www.largeanimalrescue.com or call 635-9021.
