News Archive

The heifer lives to tell the tale

ALL TOGETHER now - Kaitaia fire-fighters bend their backs to free a 360-kilogram heifer from a hole in the ground at Digger's Valley, south of Kaitaia. The animal emerged a little stiff and sore but apparently none the worse for wear.

Diggers' Valley farmer Ruth Renner only called Kaitaia's Chief Fire officer, Colin Kitchen, after she had run out of all other options for the rescuing of a 14-month-old pedigree Angus heifer on Monday afternoon, but the volunteer fire-fighters who answered the call did a great job.

They had the animal out of the tomo it had fallen into within about 40 minutes of arriving on the scene, after Ruth had spent some hours trying to extricate it without assistance.

"It was a pretty snug fit,'' she said.

"I was digging for hours before I called Colin.

"Everyone who might have been able to help seemed to be away, so in the end I rang him to see if there was anything he could so.

"Even after the fire crew dug the ground away she still needed a bit of a heave to get her out, and it would have been a long difficult job without them.''

The heifer, which Ruth described as a very valuable animal, emerged a little stiff and sore but appeared to be none the worse for wear.

"She's on the best grass on the farm now, with a couple of her mates, so she should be alright,'' she said.

She had no idea how long the heifer had been stuck in the tomo, which it had apparently fallen into backwards, before it was found but suspected that it had not been trapped for an especially long time. Its chances of surviving had it remained there overnight would have been doubtful, however.

Meanwhile Ruth was very grateful to the fire crew.

"I didn't know they did that sort of thing,'' she said, "but they were great, they really were. I was a bit worried that (the heifer) might lose a leg while they were digging around her but they were very careful. They really did a very good job, and I'm very grateful to them.''