Pooch rescued from cliff at Garret Mountain Reservation

NEW JERSEY -- Rescuers successfully secured a dirty, white poodle mix trapped on a cliff at Garret Mountain Reservation and carried it to safety Monday afternoon.

With helicopters circling overhead, Paterson firefighters, working in conjunction with New Jersey Search and Rescue, tried getting to the animal with a ladder from below, they sought to coax the animal with dog biscuits into snares so they could pull it up from above, but after nearly three hours, sent down two men to secure animal in a harness and hoist it to safety.

The fire department received the call at 2:09 p.m., officials said. And the dog could be heard yelping as first responders whistled and called out "come on pup," "come on out."

Paterson Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian McDermott said the dog had made its way down 45 to 50 feet down the side of the mountain into a crevice about 20 inches wide.

"We assume the thing was chasing after dinner," he said.

In order to maintain first responder's safety, McDermott said they didn't send rescuers down the side of the cliff at first. They climbed a 35-foot ladder and tried to coax the animal out with food, but when they got too close, the dog would retreat.

“The dog kept getting further trapped in,” said Battalion Chief Brian McDermott, who led the rescue effort.

The solution, in the end, was to scoop it up from above, requiring Harpster to go down about 50 feet strapped in a harness and enter a ravine “22, 23 inches wide,” said McDermott. A red tarp was laid on the top of the cliff to protect the rope against sharp edges.

“Once I got to it, it was docile,” said Harpster, a volunteer with New Jersey Search and Rescue, a non-profit specializing in wilderness rescue.

Officials said the dog, which may be a poodle mix, seemed to have lost lots of weight, and hadn’t been groomed in some time, its fur grown out and unkempt.

"He's been out for a long time," DeCando told reporters. "He's all bones."

"Whoever owned this dog never took care of him," he added. DeCando said that the dog will be taken to a veterinarian. And it appears the pup has a much brighter future ahead.

"He'll be adopted out. I'm sure of it," DeCando said.

James Harpster, a trained volunteer rescuer with New Jersey Search and Rescue, was among those who rappelled down the side of the mountain to get the dog. He said that he was "relieved" once the dog was secure.

"I had to lower down into a very tight space and get behind the dog and put some kind of makeshift harness around him," he said.

(North Jersey.com - Mar 25, 2014)