In 2006, New Sewickley Volunteer fire Chief P.J. Moldovan responded to a call that a horse had fallen over an embankment and couldn't get back up.
It wasn't an unusual call for the rural Beaver County department, but his fellow firefighters lacked the training to tackle the job safely. The horse started to flail, and Moldovan ended up with a broken right leg.
“We felt a strong need to have a team that was properly trained to do it,” Moldovan said.
In 2011, the Beaver County Large Animal/Machinery Team was born. Tasked with responding to farm animal and machinery accidents, the team trained with Penn State Agricultural Department instructors and now boasts almost 41 members countywide. The team can be utilized anywhere from Lawrence, Beaver, Butler and Allegheny counties to Ohio, Moldovan said.
Fast forward to Wednesday. A call came over the radio for a downed bull. Jack, a 9-year-old Brown Swiss, is owned as a family pet by the Kettler family on their Franklin Township farm and has been with their family since he was a 9-day-old calf. Beth Kettler, 26, fed Jack with a baby bottle every day after school.
Now the 2,200-pound bovine suffers from hoof rot on his rear legs and was recently favoring the stronger one. Beth found him on his side about 5:30 a.m. in the barn and couldn't get him upright. So the family called in the experts.
The team worked in the mud for hours using backhoes and straps, but the animal was too weak. A veterinarian recommended that Jack be put down.
The family was losing a longtime member.
“You grow so attached to them,” Bob Kettler said.
The team — covered in mud, fire ants and manure — hosed off their gear and quietly left the family alone with Jack resting on a bed of soft hay.
“As a team, you treat (the animal) as if it was a human being,” Moldovan said.
James Knox is a Trib Total Media photographer. Reach him at jknox@tribweb.com.
