Crews called to rescue cow

Firefighters battled for more than three hours to rescue a cow which had fallen 60 feet down a quarry at a farmer's field near Oswestry.

The crews used specialist equipment including a heavy winch to pull the cow up the side of the quarry wall at the remote farm at Haughton near West Felton.

A vet was called before the rescue to sedate the animal which somehow escaped injury despite tumbling into the disused quarry.

Firefighters from Oswestry, Wellington, Church Stretton and Shrewsbury used a 6x6 off-road rescue vehicle and a farm vehicle with a telescopic arm to carry out the rescue.

After an operation which incident commander Paul Corfield described as "particularly precarious" the animal was brought out of the quarry and is expected to make a full recovery.

Mr Corfield said the fire service got the call at about 9.30am yesterday.

Mr Corfield said: "It was a tricky operation because the location of the incident was so remote. We just could not get our rescue tenders across the fields and to the quarry so we had to use our 6x6 vehicle to get close to the incident.

"We put two firefighters down the cow with a vet to sedate it. It was remarkable that it was not hurt when it fell from such a high height.

"The operation was particularly precarious because the cow was pretty lively and your first priority is to safeguard the crew.

"The cow gave the firefighters a bit of a runaround to start with and the vet bent the first needle he tried to get into the animal. He managed to get the second needle in and we had to wait for the sedation to take its course.

"We tried to put the cow into a harness before lifting it but it kept slipping so we had to put the rope round its legs and winch it up."

Vet John Pinder said the two-year-old Holstein cow was likely to make a full recovery within 48 hours.

Farmer Ian Evans said he was grateful for the fire service's assistance.