Goat Rescued From Irrigation Pipe After Two-Day Recovery Effort

PHOENIX, AZ — After a two-day six-hour rescue effort, an Arizona Humane Society field dispatch team recovered a goat trapped in an irrigation pipe in a Phoenix neighborhood.

A homeowner near 43rd Avenue and Thomas Street heard the cries of a neighbors' goat Tuesday coming from underground, following a storm. The 8-month-old goat had fallen into a 250-feet-long irrigation pipe, and rescuers who initially responded to the scene had no idea where it was located, according to a news release from the humane society. They had to give up their efforts after a two-hour search to return the next day with a snake camera.

A three-person crew from the humane society returned to the home Wednesday, with a a snake camera, PVC pipes, shovels and a sledgehammer to break through the concrete and 12-inch pipe.

By attaching around 100 feet of pipe to the snake camera, the crew finally determined the goat's exact location.

“We could not lay eyes on the goat at all, we never saw him before we started chipping away,” said Gracie Watts, one of the humane society rescuers. “We just kind of went by faith as to where we thought he was.”

The team dug for two hours before they finally spotted the goat. Rescuer Andy Gallo reached down, and according to the news release, the goat responded with a kiss but then shimmied away further within the pipe.

But the goat's owner grabbed his horns to keep him from getting away and he was soon returned home.

Gallo said this was the best rescue of his 16-year career with the humane society.

“We were never going to quit, but you get to that point where you start telling yourself that this isn’t going to happen,” Gallo said in the release. “He would’ve drown(ed) down there if we left him.”