SANFORD, Fla. – Seminole County fire crews helped rescue a cow on Monday that had gotten stuck in mud for 24 hours, according to the fire department.
Pictures released by the department show crews digging through the soil as they tried to get the cow out of the mud.
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🐮Cow rescue today … stuck in the mud in Sanford for 24 hrs. Firefighter Gavin Schmidt bottle feeding the cow water ❤️ The crew called him the cow whisperer. pic.twitter.com/xrUD3zid0w
— Seminole County Fire Department (SCFD) PIO Media (@scfdpio) April 4, 2023
The cow got stuck in the mud pit on Sunday near the East State Road 46 and Lake Mary Boulevard intersection. The rescue took nearly three hours in the blazing Florida heat.
“The cow probably ended up in the mud pit due to the fact that it’s watering hole was just to the other side, so it was probably going there to get its daily water and got stuck in the mud on the way out,” said Lt. Elgin Myers with the Seminole County Fire Department.
He added while a cow rescue isn’t a common call, it’s still one they’re prepared for.
“Luckily, we actually had guys who have taken classes on this through the University of Florida,” Myers said. “Our department put a 20-member group through in the past so we did have some subject matter experts and the proper equipment to facilitate this.”
Thanks to special training and equipment, they were able to safely rescue the cow.
“Once we assessed the cow, stabilized the ground, then we started by digging out around the cow to free it up a little bit,” Myers said. “We got an excavator to come out, a backhoe to dig a slope, and then from there we were able to free the cow out of the mud, put straps around the cow and pull it up on a sled safely out of the hole.”
Myers said they made sure their crew took care of the cow during and after the rescue.
Firefighter Gavin Schmidt, for instance, whom the crew dubbed “the cow whisperer,” bottle-fed it with water during the rescue.
“We proceeded to cool the cow down while it was in the hole,” Myers said. “Give it water while it’s in the hole, keep it hydrated. And once it got out, we were able to actually wash the mud off the cow to allow it, you know, to relax a little bit more.”
The fire department said the owner of the cow was nearby and in touch with a vet just in case.
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