Firefighters have rescued a miniature donkey that became trapped after falling into a septic tank north of Brisbane.

Crews were alerted to the drama on Beaujolais Court, Morayfield,at 6.30pm on Thursday.

“We’ve had some different calls over the years, but this is sort of more unusual than what we get up here,” Caboolture fire station’s Scott Marles said.

“When we arrived he was fully submerged in the contents of the septic system, so he was up to about his head.

“The first thing we did was sort of pump all the waste material out of the septic tank and then at that time we got a special rescue unit on the way.

Firefighters used a tripod to winch the donkey out of the septic tank. Photo: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services

“The problem was because he was in a very confined space we had to organise some slings to get under him.

“While it took a while to do, time wise, it wasn’t that difficult a rescue once we worked out what we were going to do.”

Mr Marles said the donkey was in good spirits.

“Yeah he was fine, we were a bit surprised actually, the owners had some carrots there and he sort of came up and started eating carrots.

“Other than being a bit cold and a bit smelly he still had a full appetite.
“He didn’t seem to have any injuries as a result of the fall.”

Mr Marles said it’s likely the donkey kicked a cover off the septic tank and fell through.

“Luckily he was a miniature donkey, which made the job a little easier I suppose. A full size donkey would have been a bit harder with the lifting.

“We left [the job of cleaning the donkey] to the owners.”

-ABC