Dickinson firefighters help rescue cow stuck in bayou

By T.J. Aulds in The Galveston County Daily News
When Jim Loury joined the Dickinson Volunteer Fire Department four months ago, he never imagined cow rescues would be part of the job. But there he was with five other firefighters Wednesday morning with his hands stuck under the haunches of a 3½-year-old Brangus cow that had fallen into Dickinson Bayou.

Lori Bohannon said she woke up and glanced out from her house on the end of Lover’s Lane when she saw something strange on the southern shore of Dickinson Bayou.

“I thought, ‘That’s a cow,’” Bohannon said. “But I didn’t know if my eyes were deceiving me.”

Her eyes were just fine. One of Matt Hardy’s cows had gotten stuck in the mud near the bank of the bayou and likely had spent the night in the water. Bohannon called 911, and just before 10 a.m., members of the Dickinson Fire Department arrived. The firefighters training manual does not have a chapter on lifting cows out of the water.

A member of the horse rescue group Habitat for Horses arrived, and she at least had a booklet that described how to lift a horse out of the muck. The cow, though, was tired and unwilling to try to walk back up the bank — no matter how much coaxing the firefighters did.

Luckily Doyle Caudill, the owner of Excavation Technologies, had a crew in the area. His company had been pulling fallen trees and other debris from the bayou.

Caudill’s crew had a barge on the bayou with a crane. With a little improvisation and lots of time in the water for Loury and firefighters Chris Skinner, Khreston Laster and Rudy Perales, a plan to pull the cow from the water was devised.

The firefighters used shovels and their hands to dig out mud from underneath the cow. They then used rope to pull a harness through and wrap around the front of the cow.
The crane operator aboard the barge, Bobby Pollard, then gently pulled the harness up so a second harness could be strapped near the cow’s back legs.

With firefighter Tim Cowart holding onto a makeshift harness that was tied around the cow’s head and neck, Pollard slowly brought the cow into the air and put her gently down on the bank.

The whole operation took about three hours.

Hardy was appreciative for the help to rescue his animal. He said it’s the first time he’s had one of his cows, who drink from the bayou all the time, actually go into the water.

“I figure she got shoved in there by one of the other cows and just couldn’t get out,” Hardy said.

Most of the firefighters that were part of the rescue had been with the department less than a year. “It’s rookie duty,” Loury said.

Laster, who is 19, said when he joined the ranks, he never imagined he’d be pulling a wayward cow from a bayou. He had thought about more traditional animal rescues — like a cat stuck in a tree.

“Just the other day, someone asked me if I had done any animal rescues yet,” Laster said as he poured water from his boots and changed into some drier socks.

Weakened from the ordeal, the cow sat on the bank while Hardy fed her and gave her water. By midafternoon, she had gained some strength in her hind legs but still was unstable to put weight on her front legs, Hardy said.

He expected the cow to regain her strength and be able to march back to the barn by nightfall. Hardy said he also called a veterinarian.