DESOTO COUNTY, Fla. — Another lesson learned from Hurricane Ian pushed first responders in DeSoto County to get new equipment this week. New straps, ropes and pulleys will help the Large Animal Technical Rescue Team. This will help get your large animal out of a sticky situation quicker and faster. 

“How many people know how to help an animal in a dire situation?” Firefighter EMT Carlos Ponton questioned. 

The county’s seen water buffalo, zebra, lions, tigers, and bears — all in addition to normal livestock living in the county. 

“Horses like to get anywhere they’re not supposed to,” Lt. Robert Schmidt said. 

In that situation, what do you do? Trying to get the animal out by yourself is not the answer.

“Some people see a horse stuck in the mud,” Tyler Browning said. “They think, ‘Okay, I’ll hook a strap and pull them out,’ that can lead to serious complications.”

“We found ourselves after Hurricane Ian as prepared as possible to treat normal rescue calls or fire calls as they came out,” Ponton said. “With all the agriculture around here, we found we were ill-prepared to help treat some of these.”

The crew explained it’s not a call every day, but it’s better to be prepared than be forced to say there’s nothing they can do. 

“Our techniques involve no machinery. The only machinery used will be to get us to the call,” Schmidt said. “Everything else will be ropes, straps, pulleys and straight-up muscle power.” 

Right now only two people are trained in the techniques, and it takes anywhere from 4-8 to safely rescue an animal. The next step will be catching the rest of the department up to speed on the training before the next big agricultural event. 

“Our rodeo,” Browning said. “Many horse trailers, many cattle trailers. One of those goes over, we can step in and start doing rescue operations and rolling trailers as well.”