Cocoa had got lost from his owner while out for a walk around St Brelade but the sound of distressed barking and a hound in need led to him being found on rocks at the bottom of the bay.
Firefighters launched the inshore rescue boat from St Brelade’s Bay to save the spaniel, who they found in a “distressed and injured condition”, and then raced him to New Era vets emergency room for treatment.
Incident Commander Clive Russell said that Cocoa’s owner had done the right thing – he said that many pet owners put themselves at considerable risk trying to rescue their animals, but that the Jersey Fire and Rescue Service was always on hand to help.
He said: “We will always prefer to help with an animal rescue than have to respond to an owner that gets into difficulty trying to rescue without the necessary equipment, this is a great outcome and a great test and practice of our crews skills, we are very pleased.”
Yesterday, Bailiwick Express revealed that firefighters were called to rescue nine seagulls, six cats – including one stuck up a tree – a pigeon and a cow last year.
In previous years, the Jersey Fire and Rescue Service have also been dispatched to save donkeys, parrots, magpies and a pet rat.
Perhaps understandable given their generous number of lives, cats are Jersey’s most rescued pet – between 2010 and last year, 37 cats have been carried and cajoled to safety by firefighters – most from roofs but also from engine bays, gutters, wall-cavities, fences and, of course, trees.
Seagulls are next on the rescue list – 12 freed over the past five years, mostly from roof netting. Due to injury, the majority were handed to the JSPCA for treatment and recovery.
More unusual rescues include a pony from a swimming pool, a pet rat caught in a rat-trap, a dog locked in a car with the keys and a sheep from a cliff-top last year.
In 2013, a fire engine was sent to rescue a squirrel reporting being in a “precarious position” but the red-haired rodent found his own way to safety before the four firefighters needed to act.
In total, the Fire Service has been sent to rescue 77 animals in Jersey in the past five years.