While a bull elk and a cow were saved, another cow didn’t make it despite firefighters chopping through the ice in an effort to make a path to shore for the animals.
The dramatic scene played out at a home on Trentaz Drive, a small street off McLain Flats Road in the Starwood subdivision, starting around 8:30 a.m., after the homeowner contacted the Aspen-Pitkin County Communications Center.
The cows swam in circles, while the bull was by himself motionless in another part of the pond.
Firefighters used a ladder and rope to anchor themselves before they began sawing the ice using a chainsaw-like tool called a K-12.
The pond is 8 to 12 feet deep, estimated Alex Burchetta, director of operations at the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. With the elk unable to gain purchase on the pond sides, they quickly tired in the icy water.
Deputy Fire Chief Parker Lathrop, Capt. Kevin Smiddy and firefighter Marc Zachary worked their way out and began hacking away at the ice. Lathrop fell through the ice at one point.
“The idea is to cut a path to shore so they can come out on their own,” said sheriff’s deputy Grant Jahnke, who was first on the scene.
Kevin Wright, an officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, stood nearby. He said he wasn’t sure how long the big animals could withstand hypothermia.
“We’ve had them fall into ponds before,” he said. “Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don’t. They’ve had them in reservoirs, and they usually drown. These private ponds are notorious.”
As firefighters worked, the cows began swimming closely together. The bull, using a channel cut for it in the ice, joined them and made its way to the shore.
“C’mon, buddy, lead your girls out,” one person said.
“They have to be getting close to the point of exhaustion,” Wright said around 10 a.m.
The tired bull sank back into the pond. One of the cows then simply could not keep its head above water any longer and was soon lifeless.
With the weary bull offering no resistance, firefighters put rope around its antlers and began trying to pull it ashore.
“C’mon, big boy! C’mon!” an emergency responder yelled as several people exerted themselves for the animal.
With a path to dry ground in front of the other cow, Smiddy threw a few chucks of ice behind it to prod it, along with a few pokes from a pole, and the elk got its front legs out and was soon standing near the bull. The cow then briefly headed toward the thin ice of the property’s other pond before heading up a hill to stand and rest.
After the bull slipped back in the water, crews expertly threw a rope behind its haunches and again began hauling. This time, they were successful, and once out the bull simply laid down by the pond, its 10-point rack shaking slightly around 10:30 a.m.
Wright later issued a $70 ticket to homeowner Daryl Shadon for unlawfully feeding wildlife. Two piles of hay were near the pond that trapped the elk, a food source that brings them right to the edge of the water.
“It’s been placed there,” Wright said. “It’s illegal.”
Shadon, who also lives in Dallas, said after the ordeal that the hay was left over from bow-and-arrow target practice last summer, something he said “won’t happen again.” But he said it wasn’t the hay that led to the incident. Herds of elk routinely travel through his property, and on Monday, his housekeeper’s approaching car spooked a herd. The three animals then became trapped, Shadon said.
“Because I’ve got geo-thermal in the pond, to save all this energy, it never freezes,” he said.
Wright said he instructed Shadon to remove the hay and install fences around the ponds, measures Shadon said he would implement.
“I hate to see something like that happen,” he said. “That’s just terrible.”
Outside his front door, the cow remained on the hill. ReRe Baker, the sheriff’s office animal-control officer, checked on the elk around 3:30 p.m. The bull was still bedded down but rose at her approach before lying back down, something she took as a positive sign. The cow by then was gone.
(Aspen Daily News - Jan 6, 2015)
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