The Westhoek Fire Service’s specialised animal rescue team was called out to rescue a cow that was swimming in the Handzamevaart, in the West Flemish municipality of Diksmuide. A man and his daughter were kayaking when they saw the cow swimming. They alerted the emergency services and continued following the cow. Finally, and with quite a lot of difficulty, the cow was pulled out of the water.
It is unclear where the cow got into the water. However, the animal had been grazing in a field around 2 km away from where it was first spotted by the kayakers.
The kayakers continued to follow the cow. Meanwhile, firefighter and police officers followed developments from the riverbank.
Girl catches cow with a lasso
The animal had been in the water for a long time and was visibly tired. Eventually, the girl that was in the kayak used a lasso that had been thrown to her by the firefighters to cat the cow.
With the lasso around its neck efforts began to get the cow back onto dry land. Two firefighters tried to get the animal onto the riverbank, but it was too steep.
The specialised animal rescue team arrived on site with special equipment and divers were deployed. As the cow was very agitated, a vet gave it a sedative shot before further efforts were made to get it out of the water.
Straps were then attached under the cow's belly and the animal was hoisted back onto dry land.