Firefighters Have Their Hands Full in Elephant Rescue

If the neighborhood pet rescue is the ultimate firefighting cliche, this was the cliche writ very, very large.

On Saturday morning, the city Fire Department rushed to the Los Angeles Zoo to aid an 8,000-pound elephant that was stuck in a shallow pond.

The elephant, a female named Tara in her 40s, lay down in the pond Friday night. When her handlers arrived at 7 a.m., she appeared unable to get back on her feet.

“Well, Tara’s not one who lies down on a regular basis,” mammal curator Jennie McNary said. “I think she was in a position where it was difficult for her to get up.”

Firefighters and handlers spent nearly three hours trying to get two thick straps around the massive mammal and eventually yanked her up, using a tow truck, a crane and a forklift. Zoo officials said Tara was unhurt.

Fire Chief Carl Butler had polished his pachyderm shtick by Saturday afternoon. “When I go to work in the morning, I’m going to start taking a handful of peanuts with me,” he said.