Pregnant heifer rescued from mine shaft with purpose-built harness

Pregnant heifer rescued from disused mine shaft in South Australia's Barossa In short: A three-months pregnant heifer was rescued after falling three metres into a disused mine shaft. Volunteers worked with a vet to lift the animal out with a purpose-built harness. What's next? She was relatively unharmed, with minor scrapes and bruises. A pregnant heifer has had a lucky escape after falling three metres into a disused mine shaft in South Australia's Barossa region. The animal was recovered from an exploratory hole in an old quarry site at a farm near Keyneton on Tuesday. Local vet Saul Morelli was on site with nearly 15 SES and CFS volunteers to assist with the rescue, which took about three hours. "It was just a pretty normal morning up until that point," Dr Morelli said. "The first time I went down into the hole with her, she was definitely a little bit tense and not sort of keen to get too close to anyone, which is understandable. Pretty fed up with the situation. "She was pretty stressed, but also very tired. I think she'd been trying to get out of the hole most of the night." Dr Morelli lightly sedated the heifer, and a specialist harness was used to lift her from the shaft. "As soon as her feet touched the ground on the outside of the hole she was off, and it was a bit of a panic to quickly let all the straps loose," he said. "Despite the fact that after the sedation, just before we lifted her out, she was nearly about to fall asleep … I think the adrenaline rush of it all sort of took over." Operation cattle rescue Loading...Kapunda SES deputy unit manager Gunther Schulz said the disused shaft had been on the property for "at least a number of decades", and had previously been covered. "At some point on Tuesday morning, the cow had wandered across the branches and sticks that were on top of it and fallen straight through," Mr Schulz said. "The cow was actually very calm for the situation she'd managed to get herself in. She was standing sort of in the bottom of the hole, a few scrapes and bruises on her legs and stuff, but not any serious injuries." A purpose-built lifting harness was used in the rescue. "[It] allows us to place straps under and around the animal and then support that via a spreader bar, so it provides the maximum comfort and safety to the animal," Mr Schulz said. The location of the shaft on top of a hill meant a traditional crane could not be brought up, he said, so a neighbour's loader was used. "Thankfully it's not an incredibly common occurrence that we actually use the lifting equipment … we have a lot of other techniques and equipment that we can use to manoeuvre animals around," Mr Schulz said. "When we rock up to an animal rescue, it's about making sure that we're creating a safe space for the animal, for our responding crews and for any members of the public."