Dawes Rigging Puts Elephant Back On Her Feet
June 28, 2006 • When the Milwaukee County Zoo's matriarch found herself in distress it was Dawes Rigging and Crane Rental • and a Liebherr mobile crane • to the rescue. Putting Lucy the elephant back on her feet was a life-and-death situation turned happy ending thanks to the smooth lifting of the crane and rigging company.
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A Liebherr LTM 1080 AT crane recently got Lucy back up on her feet.
When the 46-year-old, 9,000-pound elephant couldn't get back up again after falling in her yard, the zoo put a call into Milwaukee-based Dawes, the zoo's preferred supplier for emergency lifts.
Although the zoo provided the rigging • nylon straps • and the ground crew to get the slings underneath the elephant, lifting a live load is always tricky, says Dave Gierach, the operator of the 90-ton Liebherr LTM 1080 all-terrain crane.
The rigging was intended to help support Lucy's right shoulder, says Joe Ruddell, Dawes' Sales Manager. “We lifted, boomed down, and rolled her up to get her feet underneath her,” he explains. “She was not quite coherent, but when she got up she walked a little bit and the straps slid off her.”
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Precise rigging helped raise the injured elephant.
The “very smooth and easy” emergency lift could have gone badly had Dawes not arrived in time and had Lucy not cooperated, says Ruddell. “If she'd have gotten excited or ran and Dave was still tied into her, he would have had to make adjustments.”
The last animal Dawes lifted was a crated rhino, 10 years ago, for another zoo. “We make a lot of lifts and I've seen a lot of strange lifts,” says Ruddell, “but this is out of the norm.”
He says when the call came in, it was truly a life-and-death situation for the animal, who would be the ripe age of 90 in human years. “The Zoo staff were really concerned that she get back on her feet because organs can shut down” in an animal that age. “Time was of the essence,” says Ruddell. “We don't get those kinds of calls very often.”
