Dog rescued after 18 hours stuck in pipe

By Julie N. Chang
Media General News Service
Published: July 24, 2008

MORGANTON - More than 13 and a half hours after Burke EMS launched a rescue effort on Tuesday, a hunting dog was freed from a drainage pipe, Maj. Ken Anthony said.

The dog was exhausted and had a few scrapes, but didn’t require a vet’s attention, Anthony said.

Workers labored throughout the day, as temperatures climbed into the 90s, to coax and assist the coon dog called Dan out of a pipe running under the entrance to Southpointe, a Lake James community off N.C. 126.

Maj. Ken Anthony said the call for help came in at 5:50 a.m., but Dan was stuck approximately 18 hours.

Burke EMS, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Burke County Rescue Squad and Lake James Fire Department all responded to the call. A total of 30 rescue workers were involved.

Sgt. Jeff Hibbard of Burke EMS and John Hood, a special operations paramedic, took turns crawling approximately 50 feet into the pipe toward Dan. The dog was another 15 to 20 feet away, stuck between two collapsed sections. Safetly lines were connected to the workers, who finally managed to pull the dog out by his hindquarters.

Rescuers used animal restraint poles, food, a raccoon distress call and several other poles in multiple attempts to retrieve Dan.

“He was just extremely terrified,” Anthony said.

The dog’s owner, Wayne Lowman of Connelly Springs, said Dan trailed a raccoon for a mile and a half before he followed the raccoon into the pipe.

He and the dog previously hunted in the area, but Dan has “never crossed the highway,” Lowman said.

The dog was rescued just before a heavy thunderstorm, which Anthony said would have restricted rescue efforts.

“He could have gotten killed in that rain,” Anthony said.

“We all made up our minds that boy’s dog was not going to die.”