Moab rescuers use wheelbarrow and litter to save injured dog

A Mill Creek Canyon outing turned into an improvised carry-out on June 19 when an older dog was reported unable to walk. Moab Police Department code enforcement and Deputy Hansen with the Grand County Sheriff’s Office responded after Grand County Dispatch got the morning call, and the rescue quickly shifted from a routine animal welfare report to a rough-terrain extraction.

Responders found that the canyon setting made a straightforward carry-out difficult. With the dog down on uneven trail, they built a litter from sticks and a blanket, then used a wheelbarrow to move the animal back up the trail. It was the kind of field solution canyon-country crews know well: when the route is narrow, the footing is loose and distance still has to be covered, the answer is whatever safely gets the job done.

Once back out, the dog was taken to the Moab City Animal Shelter, reunited with its owner and later brought to a local veterinarian for evaluation and fluids. The Grand County Sheriff’s Office thanked Moab Police Department code enforcement, the reporting party and everyone else who helped, a nod to how fast a small trail problem can become a coordinated response when an animal cannot keep going on its own.

The call also fit the way Moab’s local system is set up to handle these incidents. The sheriff has countywide jurisdiction as the county’s chief law-enforcement officer, while the Moab Police Department lists dedicated code-enforcement officers and an animal-shelter manager among its staff. For animal emergencies or lost-and-found cases in Moab, the Humane Society of Moab Valley says to contact Moab Animal Control immediately at 435-259-8938.

For anyone hiking with a dog in canyon country, the lesson is plain. Mill Creek looked like a manageable outing until the dog’s limits, the heat and the terrain turned it into a rescue scene, and the only way out was a blanket, a wheelbarrow and a crew willing to improvise fast.