Dog bites hand that frees it

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026

It took 10 firefighters to rescue a dog on the South End recently.

South Whidbey Fire/EMS responded to a call about a dog over a cliff at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday in the Clinton area. Battalion Chief Joe Burbank said the caller heard the dog barking while walking by on Friday but did not think anything of it until hearing it again walking by days later.

Turns out, the dog was stuck on the cliffside after its leash become entangled in some bushes, Burbank said.

Firefighter and EMT Brian Boyd descended approximately 100 feet down the cliff with a rope rescue system, which used a tree as an anchor to lower him, Burbank explained. Boyd muzzled and harnessed the dog, and his crew hauled him back to safety. Firefighters remained on scene for about an hour, according to a Facebook post by the department.

Likely frightened, the dog bit Boyd in the midst of the rescue. Boyd wore gloves, and the bite was “fairly superficial,” Burbank said, but the dog broke skin nonetheless. Rescues like these are why firefighters keep dog treats on them for the high frequency of animal rescues they conduct.

“The dog was famished so it was eating them very readily,” Burbank said. “That’s how (Boyd) ended up winning favor with the dog, too.”

The department successfully reunited the dog with its owner. One of the lieutenants called up her veterinarian friend who figured out a dog of a matching description had been missing for a week, Burbank said. There was a posting about the lost pooch in a local pet store.

“It’s pretty cool when you get to have a happy ending on this job, because we have a lot of endings that aren’t happy,” Burbank added.

While expending manpower to save animals may seem silly to some, Burbank explained it is best that the fire department conduct these rescues.

“The reason why we do that is because if we don’t go save that animal, an untrained person is probably going to try to save that animal,” Burbank explained. “And then we are going to have a person and an animal to try and rescue.”