Houston had a horse fall down a manhole yesterday. Here’s the story from the Houston Chronicle website January 22, 2011:
Firefighters extracted a horse from a huge sewer pipe late Saturday, nearing the end of a six-hour rescue effort that began when the animal slipped into a manhole in south Houston.
Rescue crews cut through the concrete casing of the 60-inch-diameter pipe and pulled out the horse, a paint gelding named Sunny, shortly after 10 p.m. They allowed the animal to rest in a trench they had dug before bringing it out to open ground.
The horse slipped into the manhole, which may have been obscured by grass, along Scott near Airport about 4 p.m., said Houston Fire Department Deputy Chief Terry Stone.
It wasn't clear how such a large animal fell into a manhole, Stone said.
"Your average manhole, you would not think that a horse would fit through that," Stone said. "But this is a full-grown horse, and it did. I can't explain it."
Wanted to graze
Sunny's owner, Donnte McCreary, 23, said he was riding on the sidewalk along Scott when the horse drifted toward the field because it wanted to graze. He felt the rear of the horse drop, McCreary said, then dismounted to discover the animal was partially lodged in the manhole.
Stone said the horse's hind legs slipped in first, and it was stuck about halfway into the hole when McCreary pulled off its saddle, after which it slipped the rest of the way in. Sunny fell about 10 feet into a sewer pipe that's about 60 inches in diameter.
Only about six people stopped to watch the drama despite the presence of about 20 firefighters, representatives of the SPCA, city public works officials and veterinarians, several ladder trucks and a backhoe.
I wasn’t really satisfied with the picture at the top of the story, since it didn’t show the horse at all. I went looking on line and found:
Which looks OK, but it’s a different horse being helped from a different hole on a different day.
I was just about to post this, along with another (funny and political) picture, when I saw this update to last night’s story:
A few minutes later, however, veterinarians and animal welfare experts at the scene said Sunny's six-hour ordeal, which began when he fell into a manhole, had caused injuries too severe for him to recover. They put Sunny to sleep.
An SPCA veterinarian administered a lethal injection to the animal about 10:45 p.m. after consulting with the owner. The horse suffered from shock, hypothermia and possible exposure to toxins, said Meera Nandlal, an SPCA spokeswoman.
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