The firefighters of the Provincial Consortium of Castellón have carried out the “I Emergency Equine Rescue Course”, organized by the Consortium and the Llorca Foundation of Equine Medicine and Surgery, and which took place in the Consortium’s Central Services. The course has been taught by firefighter Jim Green, from the Hampshire Fire Department, United Kingdom, with extensive experience in the rescue of large animals, especially horses.
The Fire Consortium has animal rescue among its missions and, among the variety of fauna they care for each year, there are equines, such as horses, which sometimes suffer mishaps such as falls into rural areas that are difficult to access, in water points such as ditches, or accidents in the vehicles in which they travel, since the AP-7 highway is a common transportation area for horses, including those for important international competitions.
For this reason, the Consortium has carried out this course that perfects and implements rescue techniques, always complex since the Consortium’s personnel try at all times to maintain animal welfare as much as possible. Firefighters from the Consortium and veterinarians with emergency services in the province of Castellón participated in the training, in order to develop new rescue techniques and improve coordination between firefighters and healthcare personnel, teamwork that is vital in this type of intervention. .
The firefighters of the Generalitat de Catalunya have also participated, specifically from its Rescue Group in Special Activities, GRAE, who have provided the dummy, a replica of an articulated horse necessary for these training sessions. Among other simulations, those attending the course had to respond to situations such as rescuing a horse that had fallen into a ditch or intervening in a traffic accident that affected a horse.
Among the trainers, there was also the veterinary surgeon from Edinburgh, Dr. Eugenio Cillan, who has shown his experience in these techniques, and in areas such as the stabilization of the horse and its sedation or anesthesia in those cases that require it, such as during lifting by crane or helicopter, or the freeing of the horse from an accident trailer or truck. The professor from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Zaragoza, Antonio Romero, and the Portuguese veterinarian Joao Crespo also attended.
