FIREFIGHTERS were called to more than 500 animal rescues in the North-East in the past three years, figures have revealed.

Half of the rescues - 250 - between 2014 and 2016 were undertaken by fire and rescue services in North Yorkshire.

Some of the more obscure incidents in the region included a Shih Tzu trapped in rocks on the beach, a snake in a car engine, as well as the less dramatic – rescuing a cat from the top of a lamppost.

There were also instances where horses had to pulled out of ditches and dogs dug out of rabbit holes.

Nationally, there were 15,293 animal rescues by UK fire services in the past three years. They included a dog stuck in a wine rack and a snake trapped in an electric fire.

There has been some criticism of the cost to fire services – an estimated £5m being spent by brigades between 2014 and 2016.

But Dominic Brown, who is employed by County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) as part of its emergency response unit, said it was just part and parcel of what they do.

He said: “We make any decisions [on rescues] on a case by case basis. But it’s not an either or in terms of the bigger incidents and we have other teams backfilling for house fires or road traffic collisions.

“The larger the animal the more danger there are to teams. They have extra equipment and specialist training to do those kind of animal rescues.

“It’s not really a cost, our specialist teams are on duty already, it is just part of their normal job.”

All crews have been given awareness training when it comes to animal rescues.

The crews carry out regular training exercises and also have the help of Randy the horse – a weight and size replica of the real thing, to replicate horse rescues, which is kept at the Bishop Auckland site.

Water rescues are also covered from Bishop Auckland with technicians being on call to go anywhere in the county.