11:00am Tuesday 14th October 2008
A COW had to be rescued from the River Thames at Marlow after wandering in from a nearby field.
Firefighters, some in boats, were called to rescue the animal south of Marlow bridge at 2.30pm on Sunday.
Onlookers watched as firefighters from Marlow and High Wycombe shepherded the cow – up to its neck in water – back to the towpath by Lower Pound Lane, with help from two boaters who were on the river.
Boats stopped and the rest of the herd also moved in to watch – with the river-bound animal mooing to them.
Eventually the cow got back on the towpath – with two police community support officers keeping crowds back.
Eamonn Eddowes, watch manager from High Wycombe fire station, said: “The cow was right in the river so we tried to keep it near the bank by the use of a couple of boats that were there.
“It then went about 20 or 30 metres up stream, adjacent to the bank, and got out.
“The problem with that was it was then on the towpath and there was quite a lot of people.”
Firefighter Eddowes said: “The crew then flattened a barbed wire fence so the cow could be reunited with his herd.
“It had a mind of its own really so we just went round and blocked its exit and made sure it went a particular way.”
And that was not the end of firefighters’ animal rescuing duties for the afternoon.
No sooner had they left Marlow than the High Wycombe crew was called to a deer trapped in railings in The Greenway, High Wycombe.
The muntjac deer had got its head stuck in the railings and was pushed out by firefighters.
Firefighter Eddowes said: “He scarpered off and was then seen in the direction of cemetery.”
He said of the double-rescue: “We usually don’t get one animal thing from one month to the next.”
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