Dog rescued from five-foot deep rabbit warren

A dog is reunited with its owner after being stuck for almost nine hours down a rabbit warren in Shrewsbury. Firefighters used earthquake rescue equipment to save Cookie, a black Pattersdale Terrier, after she chased a rabbit down a hole and became stuck five feet underground. Owner Kay Barnes, 32, spent more than two hours trying to rescue the dog herself before eventually calling the emergency services on Thursday afternoon.



It took a team of ten firefighters from Shrewsbury, Shrops., more than three hours to locate and rescue the three-year-old dog using specialist listening equipment which is currently being used in Japan to locate earthquake survivors. Collin Bennet, who recorded the video, said: "The rabbit warren covered an area of about 20 square metres. We were shouting down the holes and we could hear a faint yelp from Cookie as she called for help."

The fire crew place highly sensitive microphones in various positions on the ground to finally pinpoint Cookie's exact location. After locating her position rescuers dug a trench parallel to where Cookie was trapped and coaxed the terrier out using dog biscuits. A relieved Ms Barnes said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have Cookie back. We set off for the walk early in the morning but we didn't end up getting back until around 5pm.


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"There must have been around 10 fire fighters there and they worked for hours to get her free." A spokesman for Shropshire Fire and Rescue said: "We used specialist listening equipment to detect where the dog was. It is usually the sort of equipment used in operations where buildings have collapsed."