Goats rescued from 60-foot railroad bridge
Goats rescued from 60-foot railroad bridge
Two young goats wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent nearly two days high above the ground until rescuers in a towering cherry picker plucked them from their perch, hungry but safe.
The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway in southern Montana between Billings and Roundup, after a caller told the Rimrock Humane Society the goats were stranded on the 6-inch ledge.
The young female animals weighing 25 and 35 pounds mostly stayed on the angled ledge, even though there was a wider surface area on a pillar just a few feet away.
"The whole time, we thought they were going to fall off," said Sandy Church, humane society president. "These guys are just babies."
Church said it wasn't clear how the nimble-footed animals got into the predicament, but she speculated they wandered onto the ledge at night then froze after the sun rose and they discovered where they were.
The sheriff's office, Church and Cory Freeman, a humane society volunteer who runs the Animal Edventures Sanctuary, enlisted the help of officials at Signal Peak Energy, which operates a nearby coal mine.
Mine boss John DeMichiei volunteered mining equipment with an arm high enough to reach the stranded goats that eventually moved to the pillar.
"We thought they were going to panic, but it was just the opposite," said Church, who videotaped the five-minute rescue.
The rescue went smoothly, and the goats appeared to be in good condition at Freeman's animal sanctuary.
The goats had collars around their necks, and Church and Freeman were searching for the owner. Church hoped the animals weren't abandoned. But if they were, she already has talked to people offering to adopt them.
"Everybody loves an animal with a story," Church said.
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- Posted on September 3, 2010
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How did the goats get there.Its not like the goats can just appear there. Lucky none of them fell off. I wander how they got done. I wander were they brought them.
Wow!!! How did those goats get up there. It would be sad if one of those goats fell off and died,re but I'm glad they rescued from the bridge.
The two goats that are stuck on a 60foot rail road building I hope that the two goats are health, because they belong to someone. When the people are saving the goats they see that the goats have collars on them . They said if they were stray they would ask people to adopt them and they have a couple people to adopt if they were stray.
wow !! wat wer da gpats eaven doing up der in tha 1st place .,,how did they get up der , they must have been really scared cuz i know i woud have..
Being that nigh in the air and in the 6 inch wide. I would fall off then then not be able to swim if i was a goat. And it would make it hard for 2 b.c u could not keep walking so I guess u would talk to them.....
Wow an a ledge all night. So amazing that they survived and where rescued. I hope that they find there owners and there not abandoned!
WOW! if i was one of them i would faint because it 60 feet and because it looks that they don`t have space for each other but my question is did they get up there????????????????????????????????
HHHHHHOOOOWWW in the world do goats get up 60 ft. on a railroad track? They probably fell and got lucky that they fell on the ledge. They could have easily fallen off the ledge because they aren't that smart.
Goats are smart! They could have been playing and ran out onto the ledge and just didn't go back the way they came. I have two goats and they are so smart they can untie shoelaces.
How in the world did they get up there!!that must have ben soo scary for them.If they would have just made 1 wrong move,they could have fallen off in an instant!