Five cats in trees among 55 animal rescues for Shropshire firefighters in a year
Firefighters rescued five cats from trees in Shropshire last year, including one ginger tom who had been unable to get down for more than two days.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service responded to 55 animal rescues calls between December 1, 2018 and November 30, 2019, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
On the morning of April 17, service logs record that three firefighters and one vehicle attended a call labelled “cat up tree for over 48 hours” in east Shrewsbury. He was rescued from the 20-foot tree using a ladder.
Other incidents included a crash where a driver was trapped in an overturned lorry while transporting cattle and another incident involving two cars and a deer, which had to be put down.
On November 5, six vehicles and 29 firefighters from the Shrewsbury station attended after control reported: “RTC – driver trapped, overturned lorry full of livestock”.
The incident’s “stop message” says all cattle were released and a recovery crew helped the driver and made the scene safe.
Five days later, two vehicles and seven firefighters were called to Lawley Village, Telford, and the stop message reports: “Deer euthanised by responsible person”.
In addition to the five incidents where cats climbed up trees then couldn’t get down, a kitten got stuck in the engine of a car in Condover on September 8.
“One small kitten released from grill of saloon car, small tools used,” the stop message reports.
Other domestic rescues include a bird needing to be freed from a boiler flue in Madeley on July 1, another getting stuck behind a fireplace in the Wellington area three days later.
Two cats got stuck in an “internal drain within a house” in Dawley on April 15, and a border terrier got stuck under a shed in Shrewsbury on April 12.
The stop message says the dog was “released using shovels” after three firefighters attended the scene.
Also in April, 12 ducklings were rescued from a storm drain “and returned to parents” in Priorslee, and one duckling was “reunited with mother” after becoming trapped in a drain on Battlefield Enterprise Park in August.
