Dog trapped on ledge in Garret Mountain Park is rescued
March 24, 2014, 8:10 PM Last updated: Monday, March 24, 2014, 8:10 PM
By MINJAE PARK
Staff Writer
The Record
WOODLAND
PARK — For three hours on Monday, about 25 Paterson firefighters on
four fire trucks, a handful of Passaic County Sheriff’s officers and
Paterson’s animal control officer converged at a cliff at Garret
Mountain Park.
Their mission: to rescue a small white dog.
“The dog was on a sloping ledge, wedged between the rocks,” said James Harpster, the rescue volunteer who eventually rappelled down with a dog snare and brought the dog to safety.
Officials
said the dog, which may be a poodle mix, seemed to have lost lots of
weight, and hadn’t been groomed in some time, its fur grown out and
unkempt.
The
dog had been trapped midway atop a steep cliff behind Lambert Castle,
apparently for days, until a hiker heard it bark and alerted authorities
on Monday afternoon. Firefighters were dispatched at around 2 p.m., and
for the next two hours, they tried rescuing it from below.
They climbed a 35-foot ladder and tried to coax the animal out with food, but when they got too close, the dog would retreat.
“The dog kept getting further trapped in,” said Battalion Chief Brian McDermott, who led the rescue effort.
The
solution, in the end, was to scoop it up from above, requiring Harpster
to go down about 50 feet strapped in a harness and enter a ravine “22,
23 inches wide,” said McDermott. A red tarp was laid on the top of the
cliff to protect the rope against sharp edges.
“Once
I got to it, it was docile,” said Harpster, a volunteer with New Jersey
Search and Rescue, a non-profit specializing in wilderness rescue.
McDermott
suggested the dog may have been “chasing after dinner” when it followed
a trail in a ravine that it could not work its way back up. John
DeCando, Paterson’s animal control officer, said the owner may have
abandoned it.
“That
dog was not well taken care of,” DeCando said. “Thank god that somebody
heard that dog. He certainly would’ve died with the snow we’re about to
be getting.”
DeCando
said the dog looked bigger than it actually is, with lots of overgrown
fur, because it “has not been groomed in a while,” DeCando said.
“He’s very, very thin,” he said.
But was it worth the time and effort of dozens of public employees to save a single dog? DeCando didn’t hesitate.
“You’re saving an animal’s life,” he said. “You have to hear the way he was yelping. He was calling for help.”
The dog’s collar had no identifying information or tags, he said.
It was taken to a city veterinarian, Paul Sova, at the Blue Cross Dog & Cat Hospital where it was to stay overnight.
Today,
the dog was expected to be taken to Second Chance Pet Adoption League
in Oak Ridge. Those wishing to adopt the dog after the seven-day period
required for an owner to claim it can contact the league at 973-208-1054.