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Cambridge firefighters rescue dog that fell through the ice on the Charles

The Cambridge Fire Department reports (with photos) that firefighters rescued the freezing pup from the frigid waters of the Charles near the Eliot Bridge around 3:50 p.m. today.

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Comments

nice work fire department. that must have been so scary for that pooch and his owner(s) or bystanders.

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that this mishap and waste of resources was caused by another off leash dog in an on leash area.

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Firefighters' job is to protect life and property even when the risk results from stupid error or deliberate misbehavior. Their job is to get you and your property out of danger without judging you for how you got into that situation.

Triage being what it is, this call did not pull resources away from a burning orphanage, and everyone was already on the clock, so the incremental cost to the taxpayers was tiny.

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where do you see me denigrating the brave men and women that make up our first responders?

And I'll go further out on a paw and say I will say with some certainty that that firefighter did not want to be in freezing waters because some moron couldn't put a leash on their dog. And gas costs money and for what?

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You called it a waste of resources. So either they hang out in the station or save the dog. Seems like a dumb argument to make. If you have evidence to prove this was at the error of the owner's mistake, post it. Otherwise, maybe consider not posting BS?

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He likes to be miserable, and since misery loves company, he wishes to spread his misery around.

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Then I'll thank you to leave your speculation about my state of happiness up your ass where it belongs.

Thanks!

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Thank you for proving my point. Good day to you sir!

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A dog was rescued from the ice. How did the poor pup get there? Maybe the owner is yet another one of the social media obsessed dolts that let their dog run free next to a river or lets their dog shit where it wants along the Charles while they check their Snapamajig. So you tell me your theory of how the dog got there. Was it suicidal? Depressed? Mommy miss puppy's Prozac that morning?

I guess you never have the unleashed dog that comes romping towards me and my always leashed dog along those painted shores?

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More speculation, still no proof

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You just proved my point. You’re just posting bullshit speculation. I asked for evidence. Way to walk into that, buddy.

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what?

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Pretty straightforward stuff.

Owner was irresponsible to put dog in an unsafe environment if it couldn’t be kept safe.

Plenty of places not near thin ice to walk your dog.

As an owner you’re solely responsible for your pet’s safety.
Try to be smarter than a dog. That’s the point.

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Because that would be a stupid assumption. As I tried to demonstrate with my original comment, I take issue with speculative assumptions. Especially when they come from cynical people who think they know everything.

People make unfortunate mistakes. In this one, no one was injured nor died. Let's just leave it at that. Not really sure that we need people shaming this person to realize they may have made a mistake. They probably already figured it out because it made the news, eh?

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Not cynical,and if I knew everything I'd run for God. And as far as "shaming" the owner, imagine how the dog feels to be owned by someone so stupid as to let them off leash near frozen water.

And my "speculation" is based on the three times a week I walk the Charles and see these clueless owners letting their dogs run free, because it's a lot easier than going over to Danehy Park where there's a giant off leash park.

Add to that the owners who think that the DCR taking the trash bins away in November means they could never bring their dog's shit into the Mini-Cooper, so they just let it pile up in front of the closed Big Belly.

So tell me of your experiences along the Charles while being a responsible dog owner?

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I leash my dog with a harness style leash. She's never gotten away from me. Anything else you want to know?

You have brought zero worthwhile discussion while demonstrating you're both miserable and cynical. If you don't like getting called out for that, then keep it to yourself.

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happy to hear from a fan!!!

I'll just keep waiting for your details of your experiences with the careless dog owners along the Charles.

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There's no evidence that the owner has figured anything out nor that they have realized they made a mistake.

Pure speculation on your part. I'm not cynical nor do i know anywhere near anything. Far, far from it. In fact I pretty much know what I don't know and try tom learn what I need to.

However I do know enough to keep my dogs safe.
I'm not trying to shame anyone.
(You're also speculating that the owner somehow reads UH. How did you divine this?)

I've seen way too many foolish owners flaunting leash and cleanup laws to assume best intentions from any of them.

I think this is telling:

We've all seen dogs off-leash all over the metro area, right? I hope you'll grant me that much.
I'd conservatively estimate that 30% of the dogs I see are off leash.

Yet 100% of owners that needed rescues claim their dogs slipped their leashes.
I've never, ever, seen an owner admit he had the dog off-leash when it got onto the ice or into traffic, etc.

So do you assume all these negligent owners are lucky and never get their dogs into precarious situations?

And somehow all the responsible owners are befallen with tragedy through fate? Or have smarter dogs that can outfox them?

Come on, now. We all know the that's not true, right?

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I did speculatively say they may have seen this, but that wasn't really my point. Point was more to the fact that they probably realized they messed up once their dog was under the ice, but I apologize if that wasn't clearer in my post.

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So some moron, as you say, doesn't have their dog on a leash and their dog runs out onto the ice. If you were in charge you would let the dog be stranded. The flaw in your thinking is that then a person or persons would run out onto the ice to save the dog thus creating the same scenario in which firefighters have to go out onto the ice for a rescue.

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His name is Sean Williams.

You could ask him what he thinks - he's assigned to Rescue 1. Just call the station.

You do know how a dry suit works, right?

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Pretty sure he has better things to do then take a bunch of calls from people arguing on the internet.

But thanks for the name.

Well done, Mr. Williams.

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You do know how a dry suit works, right?

Guessing he doesn't. Most people don't even know such a thing exists. If you're in that category, you might want to learn about drysuits before you make a lot of bombastic pronouncements about how dangerous this is.

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.

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As they well should.

They often note the cause of fires being due to “careless” disposal of smoking materials. Or “improper” storage and use of other materials.

BTW, I’m all for the rescue both for the animal’s sake and to keep the owner or others off the ice.

I will say that pet owners in the end are responsible for keeping their charge safe.
Shouldn’t own one if you can’t keep it away from a hazard like thin ice on a 45 degree day.

And I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard the hound slipped its leash or somehow got away.

Either dogs are getting smarter every day or owners are getting stupider are more irresponsible.

We all know the answer to which it is.

Kudos to CFD for a job well done.

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and not when deciding whether or not to attempt a rescue.

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I can assure you that dogs really do slip their leashes quite often. Not, like, on a daily basis, but it happened to us a couple times per year. From most to least likely, in my experience:

- The dog can back out of the collar
- The leash can come unclipped (if it was not clipped properly)
- The dog tugs the leash out of the owner's hand
- The owner ties the dog up for a moment and screws up the knot
- The collar can come undone

Some dogs are also more adept than others at getting loose.

(I say this only to correct the record, not with bearing on the conversation on firefighters, etc.)

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If your dog isn't trained to be under voice command and has a propensity to both slip its leash AND run off you shouldn't bring it anywhere near thin ice.

Train your dog to heel at voice command.
Get a harness.
Double check the clip.
Learn how to properly tie a know every time.
Don't go near thin ice.
Go to an enclosed area.

Again, it's the owner's responsibility. You shouldn't rely on first responders to keep your best friend safe.
Your best friend is counting on you, no one else.

The bottom line is responsibility. My family and I have had dogs all my life. Never seen one put in such a dangerous position.

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All the more reason to stay away from thin ice

Are you really somehow unaware of how many drownable bodies of water are located in and around the greater Boston area?

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But dogs are usually ok around WATER. (If yours isn't keep them away from water bodies too.)

They might not even go into cold water and if so they can exit as they entered.

The issue is ICE, guy. They walk out and then fall thru and can't get out. See the difference?

Also are you are of all the dog parks and other areas that aren't near water at all?

None of this would have happened if the dog was on dry land. What's so hard to understand?

Good Grief.

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In the larger of the three photographs, to the right of the firefighter, there is clearly a tennis ball on the ice.

This was not a dog deciding on his/her own to go out on the thin ice. This was a negligent owner encouraging this behavior.

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If the owner sent the dog onto the ice to chase a ball he should have the book thrown at him.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this happened but I'll need some video or eyewitnesses before I break out the pitchforks.

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It's great PR for the Fire Department, and you could also consider it a good way to practice for scenarios where people fall into the river. The fire personnel were working at the time anyway; the additional "resources" were likely small.

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like to fight. my very nice comment only got one like.

sad

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Not only saving the life of someone's pup (responsible owner or not) the CFD gets the training benefit of the rescue itself. Typically they would just have a firefighter grab a wet suit and jump in but this time they get to save a life in the process. The firefighters I know would look at this a good thing and not a waste of resources.

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Yep, this is a chance to get in required hours with equipment where they would normally have to set up a drill to practice instead. They get to think through a scenario that is more realistic and not so concocted in a trainer's head. And someone's dog gets helped out.

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FF could have a medical emergency during the rescue.

His rigging could break or malfunction.

The dog could fight him and take him under and/or he could snag on an obstruction.

Then they have to send another FF in for 2 rescues?

This is serious business people.

Keep yourself and your pets off any ice you're not 100% sure of.

It's pretty simple, really.

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Typically they would just have a firefighter grab a wet suit and jump in

No they wouldn't. Not if they wanted to get their firefighter back. As Swirly pointed out upthread, the firefighter here is wearing a drysuit, and that's a very different matter.

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Deserves a better owner.
Great job CFD!

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The extremes in self-entitlement and inability to see the other person's viewpoint, on BOTH sides of an argument, on the pages at UHUB, are staggering.

The loss of focus on the article under discussion, and the way that the responses drift madly into other often-petty and non-related topics is also well off the rails.

The typical UHUB exchanges may start out as a discussion about the rescue of a dog and a few iterations later it's an argument about space savers.

There's an old saying, "If we eliminated all of the idiots out of Congress, it would no longer be a body representative of the people."

Usenet didn't die, it just changed format. Don't know what Usenet is? Ask "thezak."

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Ask "thezak."

Oh no, please don't. Really, please don't.

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Way to massively oversimplify the world. Says a lot about you.

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I think he or she specified UHub comments section. Way to over exaggerate the OP's comment.

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