Overview
- Eloy Fire District crews used ropes and department vehicles to pull a donkey out of a Central Arizona Project canal after it became trapped on the concrete slope near Highway 87 and Shedd Road.
- Battalion Chief Travis Hartman and firefighter Hannah Hartman, a father-daughter duo with livestock experience, led the effort to safely secure the animal.
- No firefighters entered the water during the extraction, and crews calmed, dried, and stabilized the donkey on the bank.
- A local livestock expert later took custody of the animal and plans to care for it while officials try to identify an owner.
- Authorities are investigating how the donkey entered the canal, which is part of a water system that feeds metro Phoenix and often traps animals that cannot climb its steep sides.