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Animal Rescues: Risks vs. Benefits
We’re seeing a lot of dog rescues making the news lately. All across the country, man’s best friends are finding themselves in a struggle between life or death at the mercy of Mother Nature.
It’s hard NOT to do everything possible to save lives, but there are fire departments and rescue teams that have standing orders AGAINST animal rescues.
Why do think this is?
Weighing the risks vs. benefits when called for an animal rescue, where should we draw the line?
Can you identify the advantages and disadvantages of either decision?
Blog post from FireDaily.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Animal rescue "Pros" - great PR, community appreciation, and most importantly, it prevents untrained civilians from risking their lives in an animal rescue attempt.
Animal rescue "Cons" - The risk is rarely directly worth the benefit. It is never acceptable to trade a human life for an animal life.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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It is never acceptable to trade a human life for an animal life.
Well that could be a whole moral/ ethical decision for another day.
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Permalink Reply by Douglas DuBree on
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Being an Ice Rescue Instructor I will tell you the Benefit is that you only have to go and rescue a dog and not all the good samaritans trying to rescue the dog. If you ( The Fire Dept.) don't go in after the dog with the proper equipment and training someone else WITHOUT the proper equipment and training will. This is why approximately 80% of all ice rescues involve people trying to rescue their dog. The risks need to be weighed out and you need to try and eliminate all the risks by having the proper equipment and trained personnel. Our dept policy is we will go after the dog if we can eliminate or reduce all risks. One of the risks is the dog biting you. We have a 5 ft dog catchers pole we use to keep some distance between the rescuer and the animal. I have seen too many videos where the rescuer goes out to save the dog and ends up being bitten by a Friendly dog. The dog may be normally friendly and has never bitten anyone in the past, but now the dog is in a panic situation fighting for it's life. It doesn't know that you are trying to save it so it may bite you. Other risk factors are where the incident happened at and the ice conditions. Two High risk situations are by a dam and pack ice. If the dog was up river close to a dam it would be a very dangerous rescue and the same goes for if the dog was out on pack ice. Pack ice is a very dangerous conditon where once again the rescuer is at High risk of lose of life for an animal.
Another advantage of rescuing the dog is it is good practice for the ice rescuers. If all the risks to the rescuers are eliminated or reduced so that you can do the rescue safely, then do it. Your rescue team will get good practice out of it so when a call comes in for a person you'll have some experience. Plus it's good PR for your Department, because you know the news media will be there in full force as it's a big human interest type of event.
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John,
Why would this be a moral/ethical decision?
It's simply recognizing the long-held value that firefighters place on human life.
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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I can personally attest to two sets of broken ribs from being eaten alive by cats in trees. Our policy is to go check out the situation and IF we can safely mitigate the situation we will attempt to rescue them.
Of course the public or animal lovers feel we are obligated. However, we still have to consider the risk benefits.
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As Ben mentions good PR, but many times it isn't worth the risks involved. An animal just isn't going to understand that you are trying to help. However, the argument can be made that a life is a life and while we don't necessarily make entry to search for an animal, if the fire is mitigated and structure stable, there have been FFs sent in many times for an animal.
In such as case as the picture with the animal in the ice, if you have ice rescue training, why wouldn't you respond? Sure it is a risk on our part, but what is the alternative? Do nothing and Joe Citizen goes out on his own and now we have a real emergency involving a person. If people knew we weren't going to respond for an animal, what is stopping them from risking their own lives. I think we can make a calculated risk analysis before committing and all out rescue. Animals do have an advantage with fur, etc which mean they can sustain temps a bit longer than the avg human.
Where I would draw the line is after the rescue. Sure many places have pet O2 masks etc and some places even had some pet CPR, fine if you take a quick try at resustation, but we aren't transporting. Another thing is if there is an animal in a home (squirrels, bats, etc) many times the FD is called because nobody knows who else to call. Our dept did respond to such calls until an SOG was made we are not doing them. We don't have training for this and we are not animal control. The old "cat in a tree" responseis also NO, they cat will come down when hungry.
However, if the animal is in a situation like this or where the avg citizen may risk their own life to attempt rescue, especially without training or equipment, then the fire dept should be involved.
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Ben,
Personally I would take a labrador over a serial murderer/rapist any day.
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Interesting, but my point was about trading the rescuer's life for the animal's life.
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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As well as us having to mitigate situations such as this, call the experts, human society, animal control, dog pound, etc., etc., whatever you call it in your area.
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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on
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We have run many dog in the water/ice calls for one simple reason. Better a trained crew going in after it, than an untrained group of bystanders. It's better to simply go and get the dog, than recover the owners later.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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where should we draw the line?
For most departments, I would agree that animal rescues should not be attempted. The one yesterday in LA is a good example. Yes, it had a good ending by saving the dog, but at what cost? The chance on losing partial function in an arm.
There are specialized training classes available to learn animal rescue which includes anatomy, and the behavioral changes of animals in rescue situations. Even with the training, if a department doesn't have the right equipment, again specialized just for animal rescue, then it probably shouldn't be attempted.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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There are many folks out there, myself included, that see their dog as a member of the family, and therefore think that their life is as important as someone else's life. That being said, myself, I would do whatever I could to help someone's pet IF it is safe to do so. Cat in a tree? No. Its life is not in danger.
Pet in a house fire or in the ice? Yes. BUT only if it's safe to do it. We actually have pet oxygen masks in our rescue truck. Don't think we ever used them, but we have them.
KSHF
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