KERHONKSON, N.Y. – A 12-year-old dog is back at home after being stuck in a crevice for five days.
Liza had become trapped in a narrow cut in the Minnewaska State Park Preserve during a hike with its owner Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
Park workers were able to hear the dog barking but couldn’t get down into the tight space to rescue it.
This photo provided by New York State Parks on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, shows parks official Jessica Van Ord entering a fissure to rescue a 12-year-old dog named Liza, found trapped after five days deep inside the narrow, rocky crevice at Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Kerhonkson, N.Y. A dog trapped for five days deep inside a narrow, rocky crevice at a state park north of New York City was rescued unharmed — though it was hungry and thirsty, parks officials said Wednesday.(New York State Parks via AP)
Days later, two members of the New Jersey Initial Response Team were able to come to Liza’s aid, the AP reported.
Volunteers who specialize in cave rescues were able to squeeze near where Liza was stuck.
“This was a tight vertical fissure leading to an even tighter horizontal crack. Only Jessica Van Ord, our smallest team member, was able to squeeze and contort herself more than 40 feet from the surface to reach the dog,” Mark Dickey, chief of the response team, said in a news release.
This photo provided by New York State Parks on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, shows park official Jessica Van Ord leaving a fissure after she rescued a 12-year-old dog named Liza, right, found trapped after five days deep inside the narrow, rocky crevice at Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Kerhonkson, N.Y. (New York State Parks via AP)
They used a hot dog on a modified catchpole to coax Liza out of the predicament.
By Tuesday afternoon, Liza was back on top of the world.
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“We are thrilled that it was possible to reunite Liza with its owner. This incident is a reminder that the rules requiring dogs to be kept on-leash are an important way to protect loved pets, their owners, and the park’s fragile resources,” Palisades Interstate Park Commission Executive Director Joshua Laird said in a news release.
The Ulster County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in the news release that Liza needed food and water but was otherwise not hurt and was reunited with its owner. They said that the dog had been seen on camera licking the damp crevice walls and that helped it survive.
