Labrador Penny hauled to safety after plunge at Ingleton's Pecca Falls

A dog who found herself marooned on a sliver of rock at the foot of a 40ft cliff in the Yorkshire Dales has been returned to her owners after a rope rescue by a volunteer mountain and cave rescue team. The incident took place at Pecca Falls, near Ingleton, at around 15:15 BST on Saturday.

The rescued animal is Penny, an eight-year-old Labrador retriever. According to the account of the rescue, she fell into the river at the base of the falls and then managed to scramble upwards onto a rocky outcrop roughly 6.5ft (2m) above the water — a position from which she could neither continue her climb nor drop safely back into the current.

Volunteers from the Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO), a Yorkshire Dales-based charity, and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene. A volunteer was lowered on a rope system to the ledge, reached the dog, and then brought her back up the gorge. She was "hauled back up the gorge where she was reunited with her owners", the charity said.

Members of the fire service's Ripon swiftwater rescue team provided support downstream from the point where Penny was stranded, providing cover on the water and at the base of the gorge while the rope work was carried out above.

CRO is based in Clapham and covers the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with its reach extending into Lancashire and Cumbria. The organisation was formed in 1935 and now has more than 80 volunteers who regularly attend mountain and cave rescues, as well as assisting with other public service incidents.

The waterfall itself is a well-known site. Pecca Falls features five falls dropping a total of more than 30m (98ft), and its combination of water, wet rock and deep gorges makes it a hazardous place for animals — and people — that stray off the nearby paths.

Penny is not the first pet the charity has saved following a tumble at Pecca Falls. In March this year, the team used a similar rope and pulley system to free a dog that had fallen 26.2ft (8m) and also become stuck on a narrow ledge. That case, reported at the time, involved the same basic technique of lowering a rescuer to the animal and winching it back to safety.

The repeat nature of the incidents has prompted a straightforward message for dog owners: leads and control are essential around fast-flowing water, rock ledges and cliff edges, even for confident swimmers such as Labradors. Dogs that appear comfortable in water are often unable to judge slippery rock, and a fall into a gorge can leave an animal stuck in a position it cannot escape without specialist equipment.

Specialist rope systems are the reason these rescues are survivable. Lowering a volunteer to a ledge and then hauling a dog back up a gorge is a technical operation requiring anchors, harnesses and trained personnel, which is why volunteer organisations such as CRO and the fire and rescue service work together on calls like this one.

The circumstances of Penny's rescue echoed several other recent incidents handled by cave and mountain rescue teams in the region. The charity was also involved in the case of a dog trapped underground that was saved after a six-hour rescue, published in May, while a terrier was rescued from a rabbit hole after two days the same month.

For CRO, whose volunteers give up their time for callouts ranging from stranded walkers to animals in peril, the Pecca Falls call is a reminder of the variety of incidents the team handles — and of the fact that the charity's work is not limited to the classic image of cavers underground.

The rescue was carried out with the involvement of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, whose swiftwater team was positioned below the stranded dog. The combination of a volunteer cave rescue team and a fire service water team allowed the operation to be handled from both above and below the gorge.

Images of the operation, published by the Cave Rescue Organisation, show a volunteer in waterproof clothing and climbing equipment being lowered down the rock face with the dog in his arms, and emergency service personnel in red waterproof jackets preparing safety gear on the grass above.

Penny's owners were reunited with their dog at the top of the gorge after the volunteer reached her, bringing an end to a dramatic afternoon for the family and a successful outcome for the teams involved.

Penny's rescue is the latest in a run of successful animal callouts for the Yorkshire Dales charity, and one of several recent cases in which specialist volunteers have brought dogs back from ledges, holes and underground spaces that they could not have escaped unaided.