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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] MSAR HAZARDS... beyond poaching

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "Thor Burfine" <thor@kelbysoft.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] MSAR HAZARDS... beyond poaching
  • Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:48:00 -0600

Bulkheads
    My mount and I went off a bulkhead into a river a few years back.
    High grass, small trail through the grass I did not see the bulkhead
    and she just went into the river thinking that is where I wanted her.
 
Car hoods
    Came across one in a field, it was covering an abandonded well 40 foot deep
 
 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Karen Nesbitt
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 3:15 PM
To: MSAR
Subject: [MSAR] MSAR HAZARDS... beyond poaching

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:30:49 -0500
From: emboote@aol.com
Subject: [MSAR] Mounted SAR Hazards
To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <8CC2B0DF4F03546-9AD4-3BDE@webmail-d065.sysops.aol.com" ymailto="mailto:8CC2B0DF4F03546-9AD4-3BDE@webmail-d065.sysops.aol.com">8CC2B0DF4F03546-9AD4-3BDE@webmail-d065.sysops.aol.com>
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Hi All,


I'm compiling a quick refresher for mounted units of hazards to be aware of as we are searching. This could be anything from natural obstacles like holes and crumbling shorelines, to man-made concerns like boobie-traps around someone's pot field. What have you seen and what do you keep an eye out for when you are searching?


Emily
----------------------------------->>>>
 
Emily and everyone,
 
Things I  look for are things that are not necessarily normal.
 
 As Emily mentioned people do crazy things and use things to boobytrap.  Be they protecting their own or setting somone up for a fall.  You can add string to the list.  An innocent string could be a lead to a deadly hazard with so many potheads and vets also well versed in making kong boobytraps. Dare I say a grenade?    Fishing line is very hard to see.  As is wire.  Bungee cords.
 
Bungee cords can wrap up into a horses or persons leg or on the road can get into a vehicle tire and or hook and break a brake cable on a vehicle.
 
As for the plants themselves, learn what to look for and at various growth stages.  One plant could be a bird dropped plant, or it could lead to a larger number.  Various plantings.
 
Adding more hazard and more insult to livestock owners are drive by shootings.  People owning livestock in such known areas are well advised to not pasture their animals on a roadfront.  Then there is the other extreme of poachers or hunters on the rear of properties and woodlands.  It does not end.  Backfiring vehicles or a shooter in a vehicle or on foot, they are all sudden hazards. Shotgun or other firearm shells, live ammo, duds. 
Other hazards...bee and hornet nests, decay, raspberry, sage bushes, poison ivy, thorn bushes, vines, spiders, cactus, gators (they are not just in Louisanna anymore!) Learn the hazardous trails of tracks left by predators such as big cats, bears, dogs, gators, snakes and people.
 
Fish twine, baling wire, syringes, animal dens, slippery pavement, ice.
 
Odors - there are various odors including bios that could be hazardous...LP, methane, methlab, gasoline, smoke, sewage, urine, canabis, decomp etc.  These indicators do not necessarily have to be in the air, they can be in a persons clothes, in their blood or on their breath.  Then there are the odors we cannot detect, but our animals can like other animal scents,  faint decomp etc.  Chemical spills.
 
Weird things on the trail such as coolers, large debris, piles of debris, nails, wire fencing at odd heights, a cooler for instance is common for meth makers to use.  Alcoholic beverage containers, cigerette wrappers, spray paint or aresol cans too.  Waste from such could lead to an abuser and or a victim. 
 
Railway searchs....there are many hazards there from railway ties, spikes and holes, to garbage to speeding and honking trains, the hobos, theives and vagrants that live there, including the taggers and druggies.
There are many things in nature that can indicate a hazard.  Buzzards over head can indicate decomp, certain wildlife present can be things such as an innocent baby fawn could lead to a nasty doe nearby.  Horned, clawed and hooved animals always propose a threat.  Predator birds can also indicate things such as mice etc... Learning to read nature can give you an extra set of senses.  Speaking of birds... geese.  A mad goose can break an arm.
-----------------------
 
Going the other end of the scale, hazards can often lead to clues in tracking to find a victim.  Seeing a hazard with all senses is having eyes, ears, mind and nose wide open at all times to pending dangers or indicators.  Touching can disturb many a clue.
 
Torn clothes hanging in a branch or on the ground, wallets, cell phones, keys, shoes etc..all could lead to a hazard or maybe a victim.
 
When I track, I look for the unusual.  Things that normally would not be there if it was a clean site. Or reasons why things should be there.
 
And to that fella that mentioned something about dog do and horse manure...they are both hazards. But then that would be of course relative to where they are and in what quanity. 
Animal dung, or feces of any kind is a biohazard.  Some horses will panic at the smell of the unfamiliar.  Horse manure can be a hazard to people.  Especially if mishandled and illdisposed.  There are parasites/worms in all manure that can be a hazard to man.  Horse manure is not exempt.  It goes septic, carries germs,  seed and draws insects, so who are you kidding, not a hazard?  And the presence of feces, especially from man could indicate a victim.
 
And insects.  Certain insects can indicate certain elements in nature, such as how fresh or how stale, how wet or how dead.  And decomp, well, that odor can carry on the wind literally for miles as our buzzard friends can attest to.
 
Karen
 
PS - we once came across boa constrictor that someone had turned loose near a conservation ground and well, needless to say it was some 7 plus feet long, that was until an 8 foot mower deck clobbered it and parted him out.  And they are not native to the area.  Again, something rather unsual.
 
 
 




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