[MarinTeams] Firefighters Save Donkey Trapped in Well

[Kate Danaher]

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/14/963066-firefighters-save-donkey-tra
pped-in-well 

Firefighters Save Donkey Trapped in Well
Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:03 PM EDT
Associated Press

UNDERWOOD ‹ A donkey is happily eating grass again after falling down a dry,
abandoned well and being freed in an intensive rescue effort. It appeared
that the animal wandered away from its farm and onto some boards covering
the well, which broke, said Bruce Huseth, fire chief in this western
Minnesota town.

Firefighters quickly realized that the animal, which belongs to farmer
Warren Gundberg, couldn't just be pulled from the abandoned well on Bryan
Nelson's land.

So they started pulling away earth with a tractor and dismantling the well
block by block Thursday. Once one wall had been taken apart, firefighters
put a harness around the donkey and guided it out with a rope.

"Whatever it takes," Nelson said as he watched his well come down. "I love
animals, and I'm just glad it's OK."

Gundberg admonished the animal after the rescue: "I bet you'll think twice
about doing that again. If you would have stayed home you wouldn't be in
this trouble."

Huseth said that he has rescued cows that have fallen through ice, but that
the donkey was a first.