Labrador Penny hauled to safety from gorge ledge after plunge at Pecca Falls

A Labrador retriever named Penny has been pulled unharmed from a narrow rocky ledge at the foot of a 40ft (12m) cliff beside a Yorkshire waterfall, after a rescue operation that brought together a volunteer mountain and cave rescue team and a county fire service swiftwater unit.

The eight-year-old dog was in the water at the well-known Pecca Falls, near Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales, when she managed to scramble onto a rocky outcrop roughly 6.5ft (2m) above the river surface. Unable to climb further and unwilling to remain in the fast-flowing water below, she settled on the ledge and waited to be reached.

Volunteers from Cave Rescue Organisation, a Yorkshire Dales charity based in Clapham, were called to the scene alongside North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service shortly after 15:15 BST on Saturday. The fire service's Ripon swiftwater rescue team provided support downstream from Penny's position, guarding against hazards in the moving water while the rope operation took place above.

Rescuers set up a rope system on the cliff top, and a volunteer was lowered down the rock face to reach the dog. Penny was then raised back up the gorge in a harness and hauled to safety, where she was reunited with her owners. Photographs released by the charity show a rescuer in waterproof clothing and climbing equipment cradling the light brown Labrador in his arms during the ascent up the wet rock face.

Pecca Falls is one of the most-visited natural landmarks in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The site is a sequence of five cascades with a combined drop of more than 30m (98ft), and the gorge below the falls is narrow, steep and slick — the kind of terrain that makes ordinary slips or falls serious very quickly.

Waterfall gorges present a particular challenge for search and rescue teams. Unlike a straightforward cliff rescue, where a casualty can usually be reached on a single rope, a dog stranded in a river gorge has to be lifted clear of both the rock and the current, and the rescue must be carried out without sending anyone else into the water. Teams therefore typically position swiftwater specialists — firefighters trained to work in and around fast-flowing rivers — below the casualty, ready to intervene if the person or animal ends up in the current.

The multi-agency response reflects the way Britain's volunteer rescue organisations operate. Cave Rescue Organisation was formed in 1935 and today has more than 80 volunteers who regularly attend mountain and cave rescues across the Yorkshire Dales National Park and into neighbouring Lancashire and Cumbria. The charity also assists with other public service incidents, meaning call-outs are frequently handled jointly with the police, ambulance service and fire and rescue teams.

This was not the first dog to be lifted out of Pecca Falls this year. In March, CRO volunteers used a comparable rope and pulley system to recover a dog that had fallen 26.2ft (8m) into the gorge and also become wedged on a narrow ledge. That earlier operation underlined a recurring theme at the falls, where visiting dogs appear to misjudge the drop into the pool below and then struggle to escape the steep-sided channel.

The pattern is not unusual at popular swimming spots. Dogs entering a gorge at the base of a cascade can be carried downstream by currents that appear deceptively gentle from above, while the rock walls on either side offer few obvious footholds. Rescue teams in such situations stress the importance of keeping dogs on leads near fast water and of calling 999 or 112 rather than entering the river to retrieve an animal.

CRO has become well known locally for animal rescues across the Dales. Recent call-outs have included a dog trapped underground, freed after a six-hour operation, and a terrier rescued from a rabbit hole after two days missing. Earlier this year the charity was also involved in lifting a dog out of a small gap in moorland terrain.

For Penny, the outcome was straightforward: a short rope ascent, a walk along the gorge path and a reunion with her owners. The wider picture, however, is one of an organisation with more than eight decades of experience being asked, with growing regularity, to perform technical rescues involving pets that would almost certainly not have survived the gorge unaided.

The Cro cave rescue team regularly issues advice to visitors to the Yorkshire Dales, particularly during the warmer months when footpaths around Ingleton and the waterfalls attract thousands of visitors. That includes staying away from cliff edges, keeping dogs under close control near water, and avoiding the temptation to follow a dog down into a gorge or along the lip of a fall.

For now, the focus is on the safe return of a very wet Labrador to her owners — and on the volunteers who rigged the ropes, lowered themselves down the face of the falls and brought her back up. Pecca Falls, which has drawn walkers, climbers and photographers for generations, added a rescue to its long list of dramatic moments this weekend.