Hawke’s Bay: Dog stuck in effluent pond in Te Pōhue saved by social media - and a lasso

A pooch from Te Pōhue has been saved from a stink situation by social media after jumping into an effluent pond and realising she couldn’t swim out.

Gail Milford’s chocolate Labrador, appropriately named Lucky, was rescued from an effluent pond on State Highway 5, north of Napier in Hawke’s Bay, with a lasso on Friday morning.

Milford was, amazingly, alerted to her dog’s predicament when she opened her phone to check her notifications and saw a post about her dog on a local Facebook group called HB State Highway Issues.

The post showed the opportunistic dog swimming in sludge, stuck up to its neck and back, completely covered in effluent.

Once Milford and her husband realised the dog belonged to them, he and their 15-year-old son launched into action, grabbing a lasso.

“My son and my husband went down and I blew up the inflatable lilo, and by the time I got there they had already got her out.”

Milford said Lucky was just over an arm’s reach into the pond and had become stuck after swimming into a spot that was thick and “mucky”. It was unclear how long she’d been in her predicament.

“My husband brought her home and hosed her off and I still have to give her a bath.”

Milford said Lucky was very happy to be rescued, and was given some food and a bath to wash away the smell.

While she didn’t get close enough to the pond to catch a whiff of the stench, Milford said her husband and son said the smell was “nasty”.

The dog, who has 7-week-old pups, was known to be an escape artist and Milford believed she had taken the opportunity to go exploring after her son fed her on Thursday night.

Lucky having a bath after she was saved from an effluent pond on State Highway 5. Photo / Savanna Milford

“If you don’t latch the gate properly she will find a way out.”

Volunteer fireman Norm Brown with the Te Pōhue Fire Brigade also received a callout for the stuck dog.

He said by the time he arrived on the scene around 7am, the dog was out of the effluent pond, much to his relief.

“I didn’t go close to it,” he said.

He said Lucky was small enough to fit through the netting around the pond, which is how she came to be stuck.

Brown said social media was playing a positive role in alerting firefighters to issues, including local rescues like Lucky’s.

“Most of our stuff is down to the social media page, it is a good information page.”

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.