Rescuing Cats from trees?

We had this HUGE discussion in school about firefighting, and the first words my friend (he's from another country) said about Firefighters is that they put out fires and rescue animals from high places.

Has your company gone to rescue a cat, or maybe even a dog, from a high point?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on January 10, 2011 at 5:24pm

I have personally seen two animals rescued by firefighters, a cat and tiny little dog

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on January 10, 2011 at 5:46pm

A bird?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on January 10, 2011 at 5:53pm

Nice, never heard of rescuing a bird, lol

Bird: Why the hell is water coming from the ground??

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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on January 10, 2011 at 7:38pm

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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on January 10, 2011 at 7:52pm

Yes, we rescued a cat a couple of years ago from about 30 feet up in a tree. The whole time I was wondering if the cat would just come down by himself if we left him alone.
Just posted this one in the Lighter Side of Firefighting...(I didn't shoot the picture.)

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Permalink Reply by capcityff on January 10, 2011 at 7:53pm

No way. It's a waste of time. If my engine company is running 15-20 runs/tour we surely don't have time for something like this. If it got up there, it will get down.

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Permalink Reply by Sonny Raulerson on January 10, 2011 at 8:06pm

Seeing as most of our firemen are farmers to ask them to leave their work and come get a cat out of a tree would not be a very good idea because you see they all carry somr kind of gun in their truck to shoot snakes skunks ect. I would be afraid just yhe might get down. We have gotten a horse,bull and had a semi load of hogs turn over and helped get the hogs out into stock trailers but ijust don't have the nerve to ask them to get a cat from a tree.

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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on January 10, 2011 at 8:06pm

If we aren't already busy we go... we do anything to keep our community safe... WE VIEW IT AS PREVENTION...

Rescuing the cat is better than going an hour later to rescue the man who fell from the tree and now has a neck fracture and/or a broken leg... cause he was trying to rescue the cat without the proper equipment...

We don't send our whole dept - just 1 truck and a few staff.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on January 10, 2011 at 8:11pm

I've never seen the skeleton of a cat in a tree.. and like Jim.. I have had to do a cat rescue just once.. for the sister of a city councilor (who hated us with a passion... yet didn't hesitate to call the Chief at the time to demand we get his sister's cat)

Exactly as Ron states, never seen a cat skeleton in a tree.

We have had a few animal calls where a squirrel, bats, etc were to get into a house, but have since (thankfully) stopped doing such calls. Animal Control takes care of that. We also had to get a bird out of the mayor's house when he stopped at the station one day and had the chief send a crew to do so.

In actuality, the act of "rescuing" such animals should fall on to those with proper training. A scared animal doesn't really recognize one as a "friend" nor help when they are scared. Too many chances to get maimed by a scared animal and a good chance of falling from a ladder etc if the animal is at a height.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on January 10, 2011 at 8:12pm

I agree.

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Permalink Reply by capcityff on January 10, 2011 at 8:23pm

When you only have 16 truck companies in a city that runs 180,000 runs/year it isn't worth the possibility of "prevention" for something like that. We have a better chance of the truck being needed for something more important, like a fire or cardiac arrest, than the chance of some guy climbing out there and falling. It's also going to be tough to explain to a child why her dad died because of a heart attack because the closest truck company was taking a cat down from a tree.