I watched a TV show a few months back with a similar situation (cat on a roof), the fire officer said in most cases they won't tie-up resources trying rescue cats because they'll eventually find their own way down anyway.
Soooooo My Cat...is stuck in a tree
- Thread starter platypus
- Start date
I watched a TV show a few months back with a similar situation (cat on a roof), the fire officer said in most cases they won't tie-up resources trying rescue cats because they'll eventually find their own way down anyway.
Didn't really think it needed stating that the tree isn't (human) climable.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Soldato
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Fire brigade will charge you. It will come down when its hungry enough.
Oh no, I was thinking he could use it to extend his reach and poke the cat out the tree.
heh heh
oh.......well this is awkward.
Shoot it... It'll come down pretty quickly after that. It probably went up there with the intent of killing a bird or other native creature so one less cat to worry about decimating our native bird and wildlife is also a bonus.
Sorry, harsh but true.
Sorry, harsh but true.
Forget the fire brigade... you need this guy!!
...or Uncle Ruckus
wtf the crows were going to pluck him out of the tree?
how big are crows in america
Nope.
Ok, lets clear this up a bit from the 999 point of view.
There is no special service charge levied in relation to incidents involving the rescue of animals. Even rescues as innocuous as cats stuck up trees. If someone calls the RSPCA/SSPCA to report a cat stuck up a tree they will as already pointed out be asked how long the cat has been up there. If it is under or around 24 hours the caller will be asked to wait longer as the cat will in almost all cases, return to ground level at some point thereafter. Only if it is more than 24 hours (usually substantially more) will the RSPCA attend to size up the situation. In some cases they wont even attend but will call us. We will then attend and take a look. Most of the time we will remove the cat from the tree unless my DRA indicates that I may be putting my crew at risk in doing so. But usually I'll get the crew to rescue the cat, I'm not getting tipped out to a cat stuck up a tree only to arrive with an already 'tied up resource' only to say to the owner 'Nah, not really keen on that'. I'm there anyway so I may as well get on with it.
Now, sometimes an owner will bypass the RSPCA and call us directly. In which case I'll ask the same questions the RSPCA do including 'how long has it been up there?'. If its a short period of time I'll tell the owner to wait a bit longer but by all means if they feel the cat is in danger or in distress then give us a call back later if it still hasn't returned to ground level. Control room procedures/attendance procedures guide us here and we shouldn't really deviate away from them and just jump in the fire appliance and drive to the address concerned. However as a 'PR' exercise if someone does sound distressed on the phone that their little Tiddles is stuck fast then I'll nip out on the quiet in the appliance without making it a turnout via control. We'll then more often than not rescue the cat or simply give the owner reassurances that its not in any danger. People like being reassured and if that reassurance comes from a crew of firefighters who also say that they will in fact return at a later time if need be if the owner is still seriously concerned then they generally are quite receptive to that.
There have also been the odd occasions where one of my trainee development firefighters needs to tick a box on his portfolio involving animal rescues so we'll use any calls to a cat up a tree to do that too. Makes sense.
Finally, there are very few cat skeletons up trees nowadays which may tell you something.
If you are genuinely concerned for the cats welfare and ultimately, safety then by all means give your local fire station a call on their direct dial landline number, not 999. It does depend on who is on duty at the time as some folk will take a common sense approach in the same way I do but some others will play it completely by the book and refuse to attend.
Nope.
Ok, lets clear this up a bit from the 999 point of view.
Can I ask you a question.
if someone put a bike lock on someone elses bicycle so they can come back and steal it later on at night when no one is around.
if the bike owner phoned the local fire service and asked if they would cut the lock off providing the guy can prove ownership would the fire service be likely to help?
I know of people phoning the police and being told they won't do anything unless the bike is actually stolen and I've always been curious as to what you could really do if that situation happened and you have no cutting tools of your own capable of removing the lock.
Soldato
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Tell the cat you don't want it to come down.