Uplifting experience for Amagh

While on the subject of animal rescue and international relationships, a New Zealand horse was recently rescued in the first successful use of a piece of innovative equipment from California.

Amagh, wondering what all the fuss was
about, enjoys a nosebag with his rescuers
following his airlift. Kirstie Dacre is pictured
fifth from left. Also pictured are Amagh's
owners (at head) firefighters (at rear) and
the veterinarians and students who took
part in the rescue.

Centre of attention was the horse Amagh, which had become stuck down a steep hillside at his Palmerston North home. Coordinating the rescue and wrangling the horse – along with firefighters, helicopter crew and vets – was Dr Kirstie Dacre, Senior Lecturer in Equine Medicine at Massey University.

An elderly 27-year-old, Amagh had fallen down a steep scrubby gully and had to be airlifted to safety. Luckily for him, Kirstie had recently attended a rescue training exercise run by the Disaster and Emergency Response Centre at the University of California in Davis, and Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital had purchased a large animal lift sling for use in equine anaesthesia recovery and horse rescues in New Zealand. Unlike most slings that support the horse using the abdomen – often causing them to panic – the large animal lift sling uniquely uses the skeletal system and is extremely well tolerated by horses.

In the wake of a number of serious widespread catastrophes (the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 2005 New Orleans flood, to name but two), there has been increasing demand for better across-country and across-agency coordination of responses to emergencies.

Thanks to Kirstie Dacre’s foresight in establishing a link with the Centre at UC Davis, seeing a need for specialist equipment in New Zealand and gaining competency in its use, Amagh and other horses yet to be rescued, can live to graze another day.

Page last updated: 30 April 2008