Two kid goats have been rescued from a disused Melbourne Water sewerage drain at Hoppers Crossing to find a home at Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary in Lancefield.
The kids were stuck at the bottom of the six-metre drain leaving rescue crews wondering how they got into their predicament and how they would help them out.
It is unknown where the kid goats came from, but with noisy construction works in the area, their inability to escape, combined with a lack of fresh water and menacing foxes, their future looked bleak.
The were located by a dog-walker and, although coming up empty handed each time he reached out for assistance, Dean Scully refused to give in.
It was Melbourne Water employee Gerard Morel and the team at Edgar’s Mission who answered his pleas.
Lowering themselves one by one into the drain and armed with head-torches, gumboots and insect repellent, the rescue team set off.
Pushing the goats towards the open end of a long tunnel, the plan was to use the opposing sealed end, some 100 metres in, as a means to block and corral the goats.
The plan worked but not without its challenges or heart-stopping mid-air catches, which saw the kind crusaders triumphantly emerging almost 30 mud-encrusted minutes later, along with the goats alive.
Each bewildered goat was then passed from hand to hand and up a ladder and into the back of the crew’s awaiting straw-lined Kindness Van.
Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary founder Pam Ahern said the relief of freeing the kids was enormous.
“I cannot begin to relay the joy it brings to us all to see such good outcomes happen for animals,” she said.
“And although we have rescued farmed animals from many a tricky situation, all are united by one thing and that is the refusal of someone to turn away from an animal in need. This truly speaks to the goodness of the human heart.”
