Animal rescues cost UK fire services £3.5m in last three years

UK fire services spent at least £3.5m rescuing 17,000 animals in the last three years. Firefighters got a cow out of a tree, removed a snail from a wall and reunited a duckling with its mother.

Anton Phillips, animal rescue specialist at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "If we don't rescue that animal somebody else will or will try to. I've seen people have their arms trapped in drains trying to rescue ducklings and we've actually had to dig the road up to get the person out." But others were more trivial, with ducklings rescued from a drain, a pigeon released from a tree and a squirrel up a lamppost.



The most common animals that were rescued were cats, dogs, birds and horses, but other animals involved included snakes, seals, bats, chinchillas, iguanas, a raccoon, badgers and a chameleon. Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called out to remove a snail stuck halfway up a wall after being contacted by a distressed elderly lady.

Jim Green, an animal rescue specialist said: "The cost attributed to sending a couple of blokes down the road to help the lady and to reassure her, that was merited, and the actual problem, the snail, might seem ridiculous but it was that lady that they were going to help."