Months After Horse Rescue, Group Donates Sling To Help Other Animals

The Cherokee County Saddle Club on Saturday presented Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services with a new Becker sling during a small gathering at the Garland Mountain Horse and Hiking Trails.

The sing will assist firefighters during a technical large animal emergency rescue, Cherokee fire said in its press release.

The tool is a simple vertical lift system designed for short rescue missions needed to extract large animals that may have fallen into holes, ditches, swimming pools and any other location where it is necessary to lift the animal in order to place them in a safer location.

Technical large animal emergency rescues does not refer to “salvage/rescue” of neglected, starving or abused animals, although many of the techniques may be utilized on those types of scenes or in rehabilitation facilities. It is the practical considerations, behavioral understanding, specialty equipment, techniques, methodologies and tactics behind the safe extrication of a live, large animal from entrapments in local emergencies and disaster areas, the fire department stated.

“The idea came to me one day when I had a horse that went down and I called 911,” said Katherine Davis, treasurer of the Cherokee County Saddle Club. “Surprisingly, the whole calvary came. Representatives from Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services arrived to help with the rescue. It gave me an opportunity to talk with Darrell Mitchell, their special operations chief, and he told me that they had to borrow Milton Fire Department’s equipment when situations like this occurred. I invited him to come speak to the saddle club’s Board of Directors about what the department needed and that’s when we decided to step in and help.”

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Mitchell added the donation represents another tool to ”enhance our large animal rescue capabilities.”

Presently, Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services have twelve plus firefighters that have already gone through the large animal rescue training.

The Cherokee County Saddle Club started collecting donations back in September. They collected $1,600 which allowed them to purchase the whole Becker System kit.

“We are going to continue to fund raise for additional equipment that they need,” added Davis.

If you would like to make a donation to help purchase additional equipment needed for large animal rescues, contact Davis at (770) 289 5295.

Photo: from left to right, Cherokee County Special Operations Chief, Darrell Mitchell, Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather and Cherokee County Assistant Fire Chief, Eddie Robinson accept the new large animal rescue equipment from Katherine Davis, Treasurer and Jim Gitzinger, President of the Cherokee Saddle Club. Credit: Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services