Category: Heroes

Volunteer Rescuers Carry Exhausted 190-Pound Mastiff Down Mountain Trail

Floyd, a 3-year-old, 190-pound Mastiff, managed to hike up the Grandeur Peak mountain trail in Utah on Sunday afternoon with his dog dad. But when it was time to head back down the trail, Floyd refused to budge.

As the sun began to set and the temperature began to drop, other hikers who saw the duo called 911.

Volunteer first responders with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) team immediately sprang into action. “They had no hesitation whatsoever, even when they heard it was a dog,” Sgt. Melody Gray, of the Unified Police Department, told CNN.

Armed with a stretcher, the team “headed up the trail to make sure Floyd could get off the mountain … before it got too cold,” SLCOSAR posted on its Facebook page Sunday.

During their four-hour rescue effort, the team strapped Floyd onto the stretcher and carried the big guy all the way down the trail. At one point they had to walk across a narrow concrete beam above a creek, but neither they nor Floyd seemed the least bit nervous.

“Floyd was a good boy and was happy to be assisted,” SLCOSAR wrote in its Facebook post. “Floyd, his human and all the team members got off the mountain around 10:30 p.m.”

In a comment on the Facebook post, Amy Sandoval wrote that Floyd is her brother’s dog. During their hike, her brother took a wrong turn and the two had to find their way back to the trail. By then, Floyd was exhausted.

The Mastiff is fine and has been getting plenty of TLC at home. “Hopefully, Floyd will be up and hiking again soon!” SLCOSAR wrote. (And hopefully those future hikes will be on flatter trails!)

The all-volunteer SLCOSAR has over 30 members who are on call 24/7. All members are trained and equipped to handle any type of outdoor emergency.  It’s pretty impressive that these heroes perform nearly 100 rescues every year, all free of charge.

Each of these rescues costs SLOCSAR about $12,000. If you’d like to make a donation to help the team continue their heroic efforts, visit their website.

Photo: Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue/Facebook

LAPD Adopts Puppy Found on a Busy Hollywood Street

When Officers Mercado and Tavera with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) found an abandoned puppy wandering on a busy Hollywood street, they didn’t turn him over to L.A. Animal Services, where the little guy may — or more likely, may not — have eventually found a forever home.

Instead, the LAPD Hollywood division has adopted the puppy, naming him Hobart after the street he was discovered on. As you can see from the video, “#HollywoodHobart” has become very attached to one of his rescuers!

Although the LAPD joked about Hobert joining its K-9 unit, the little pup could become a comfort dog, working his charm not only on crime victims but on stressed-out officers. As I wrote for Care2.com in September 2018, comfort dogs are becoming more and more common in police stations.

Many thanks to Officers Mercado and Tavera for likely saving Hobart’s life, and here’s hoping this lucky dog brings lots of joy to the LAPD Hollywood division.

Photo: @LAPDHollywood/Twitter

Hero Pit Bull Dies after Protecting His Family from a Deadly Snake

Zeus, a 9-month-old Pit Bull, played in his Webster, Fla., yard last week as 10-year-old Oriley Richardson and his 11-year-old brother, Orion, cleaned the young dog’s water bowl.

Suddenly Zeus pounced on the ground near the boys and started attacking something. Oriley thought Zeus was playing with a rope.

But it wasn’t a rope. It was a venomous coral snake. These snakes, with red, yellow and black bands, live in the southeastern United States. According to National Geographic, this snake is “famous as much for its potent venom as for the many rhymes — ‘Red and yellow, kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack'”—created to help distinguish between coral snakes and other non-venomous snakes with similar skin patterns.

Zeus used his body to cover the coral snake, laying on top of it to prevent it from moving toward the boys.

The dog’s eyes looked “bugged out,” the children’s’ mother, Gina Richardson, told CNN. When they turned Zeus over, they saw he had bitten off the snake’s head — but not before the snake bit him four times.

Although the Richardson family rushed Zeus to an animal hospital and a veterinarian immediately gave him anti-venom medication, the hero dog died the next day.

“I just started bawling,” Richardson told CNN. “My kids woke up and heard me crying and then they too started crying. We were all an emotional wreck.”

What’s even more heartbreaking is that Zeus died on Oriley’s birthday. “He was a good boy and I loved him with all my heart,” Oriley told CNN. “I played with him all the time. I feel sad and I miss him.”

The vet bill for Zeus was $1,000. But the Richardson family doesn’t have to worry about paying it, thanks to donations to a GoFundMe fundraiser from animal lovers touched by the Pit Bull’s heroism.

That heroism is the one upside to this tragedy. Zeus has been making national headlines for saving the lives of those boys.

Their father, Gary Richardson, told CNN that Zeus was his best friend. “I’m torn between wanting to be happy that this situation has brought awareness to his breed and their kind and loving nature, and the sorrow of having lost him,” he said.

He told FOX 35 Orlando that although he’d had many different animals in his life, “Pit Bulls are the most loyal dog I know of.” (I agree wholeheartedly.)

Gina Richardson noted that if a Pit Bull is aggressive, “most likely, it’s because they weren’t treated right,” she told FOX 35 Orlando. “If you treat them right, they would give their life for you and I owe my son’s life to him.”

Rest in peace, Zeus, and thank you for being such a very good boy.

Photo: Zeus the Hero Pitbull Vet Bills GoFundMe page

5 Working Dogs Who Became Heroes

Along with two-legged workers, the police, military, and other working dogs who spend most of their lives keeping us safe should be recognized as well on Labor Day.

Many of these dogs have gone far above and beyond the line of duty to save lives. Meet just a few of these four-legged heroes.

Sgt. Stubby

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Stubby was just a stray when John Robert Conroy rescued him on a Yale University field in 1917. After Conroy smuggled him aboard a ship to France during World War I, Stubby became a working dog. He was the most decorated war dog in U.S. history and the only one promoted to sergeant.

Sgt. Stubby saved many lives by warning troops of mustard gas and crawling under barbed wire to save wounded soldiers.

Last year, Sgt. Stubby was honored with a statue in his home state of Connecticut, and the story of this amazing dog is told in the computer-animated movie Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero.

Prince

For his heroism during four tours of duty in Vietnam, a Navy SEAL dog named Prince was awarded two Purple Hearts, which are usually only given to humans.

Among this working dog’s many heroic acts were leading his patrol to a stash of hidden enemy weapons and tracking down two Viet Cong leaders hiding in tunnels.

The fate of Prince, a former police dog, wasn’t known until recently. Sadly, like so many four-legged heroes of the Vietnam War, Prince never got the retirement he deserved back home in the U.S.

Diesel

A French National Police dog, Diesel was trained to use her remarkable sense of smell to detect explosives. After the horrific attacks on Paris in November 2015, the 7-year-old Belgian Malinois was sent ahead of her human partners into an apartment where terrorists were believed to be hiding, to assess the situation.

Tragically, Diesel never made it out alive. She was shot and killed by the terrorists, and mourned by animal lovers around the world.

For her bravery, Diesel was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal, which is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

Riley

Riley’s rambunctious personality didn’t jive with the family who’d rescued him as a puppy in 2008, so he was surrendered to a rescue group.

Ten years later, Riley was one of several search-and-rescue dogs who helped save lives by locating victims of the devastating January 2018 mudslide in Montecito, Calif.

Dexter


Along with his handler, Officer Dave Winans of the San Diego Police Department, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Dexter has countless arrests under his collar.

While responding to a 911 call in February 2018, Dexter was stabbed several times by a suspect with a knife. The suspect was apprehended and charged with several crimes, including felony assault of a police dog. Fortunately, after emergency surgery, Dexter fully recovered and is back on the job.

Because of the sacrifice Dexter made to save his fellow officers, this hero dog was a recipient of the 2018 AKC Paw of Courage award.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This story was originally published on Care2.com.

Maine Firefighters Rescue Blind and Deaf Dog Swept Away in Stream

The owners of one particular blind and deaf terrier might want to consider renaming him “Lucky.”

Somehow the small dog — hey, I’m just going to go ahead and call him Lucky — ended up in the Messalonskee Stream in Waterford, Maine, on Sunday. He was swept downstream and then became trapped on a small bank near a bridge.

Lucky lived to bark the story thanks to a good Samaritan who saw the dog and called the Waterville Fire Department (WFD), which quickly arrived to rescue him.

“WFD proudly serves our residents, but sometimes even our pets will find themselves in a bind,” the department wrote on its Facebook page yesterday.

The WFD’s special operations team shut down the road over the bridge and went to work. Lt. Ryan Cote was able to reach the bank by using a ladder extended from the bridge. The castaway was “wet, blind and deaf,” according to the Facebook post.

Photos that accompany the post show Cote ascending the ladder with Lucky tucked on his arm, and Lt. Steve Francoeur helping him get the dog over the bridge railing.

“Once the dog was safe, the crews made numerous phone calls and a short time later located the owner,” the Facebook post reports. “Great work by all involved here.” Absolutely!

Photo: Waterville Fire – Rescue/Facebook

Exit mobile version