Firefighters have been called out to rescue thousands of animals such as cats stuck up trees and farm animals trapped in water or mud. In 2020-21 the fire service was called out to save 5,160 animals from a variety of predicaments.
That's a 9% increase on 4,724 the previous year and the highest number since available records began in 2012-13. More than half of those calls were to save pets (52%) while one in five were to rescue distressed farm animals (20%) and almost a quarter were to help wild animals (24%). Even birds needed saving sometimes, with 5% of calls to rescue parrots, budgies, ducks, and other feathered friends.
The most common call received by firefighters nationally was to rescue a trapped animal (1,965 calls), followed by animals stuck somewhere high (1,428) - of which two-thirds (66%) were domestic pets. That suggests the cliche of firefighters being called out to rescue cats from trees is still very much a reality - as Cheshire firefighters demonstrated earlier this year by coming to the rescue of a cat that spent a stormy night clinging to an overhanging branch up a tall tree in Wirral.
Firefighters also responded to 745 calls to save an animal stuck in water or mud and 291 calls to rescue an animal from below ground. Another 223 calls were to an animal in harm, 184 were to lift a heavy animal, and 324 were described as “other”.
Last year firefighters utilised at least 8,791 appliances and 28,486 officers - with many of the same officers and appliances attending multiple rescues. So far this year firefighters around the country have been called out to rescue pets and other creatures from a variety of different dangers.
That includes:
- A parrot that got stuck in pigeon spikes on a shop window while taking a walk with its owner down Oxford’s busiest street.
- A kitten fell down a hole behind a washing machine into an underground soil pipe and was saved by eight West Midlands firefighters over the course of a two-hour rescue in Birmingham.
- A cat was rescued from a house fire and revived by London firefighters using a specialist pet oxygen mask for the first time.
- And a brood of ducklings were hooked out of a storm drain in a joint rescue by Lancashire firefighters and RSPCA officers. The four young ducks had been swept through a gap in the drain cover on a pond in Preston, and a passerby raised the alarm after spotting their anguished mum anxiously circling the drain.
Mark Hardingham, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, said: “Animal rescue is a vital role carried out for many years by UK fire and rescue services, ranging from domestic pets to livestock. Animals in distress pose a potential serious risk to the public, members of other agencies and to firefighters.
“As the national statistics show, animal rescues are on the increase and we always urge people to contact the RSPCA in the first instance, who will assess the situation and call fire services if specialist equipment is required. Firefighters undergo training on how to carry out rescues to ensure their safety and to cause animals the least distress possible.
“There is also national guidance for fire services how to deal with such incidents. In addition, members of the public could be injured by distressed animals when trying to carry out rescues themselves.”
