A picture of the actual dog and the area where the man fell.
Posted on 02/20/2018 10:04:03 AM PST by nickcarraway
It was an idyllic but cold holiday morning near Daly City's Thornton Beach, the kind of morning that draws families and dog walkers to the coast. But just after 11:30 a.m., one man's attempt to save his dog cost him his life.
The National Park Service confirms the 67-year-old man was trying to get to his stranded dog, which had made its way part way down a cliff, just west of Skyline Drive.
But then he slipped and fell as many as 500 feet to his death.
Firefighters had to race to beat the high tide to get to the man, but it was too late.
While a California Highway Patrol helicopter lifted firefighters and the man's body from the area, his family members arrived to retrieve the dogs and console one another, clearly devastated by what had happened.
The area is just south of Thornton Beach and west of Daly City's Palisades Park, a popular area for dog walkers and families, but also one that can be as dangerous as it is beautiful.
"Stay on the trails, especially I mean the ice plants will be slippery with the moisture," said Rath Skallion. "That's why I can see someone slipping on the edge."
The CHP helicopter with the man's body touched down in a parking lot near Thornton Beach and the body was then transferred to a San Mateo County Coroner's van.
The Park Service warns people not to try to retrieve stranded dogs by themselves, saying the dog often survives, while the person might not.
I guess it depends on where he was on the cliff when he slipped.
Reminds me of the cliche’ of calling the fire department to get a cat out of a tree.
I’ve never seen a cat skeleton up in a tree, apparently when they get thirsty enough they figure out how to get down on their own.
“I’ve never seen a cat skeleton up in a tree, apparently when they get thirsty enough they figure out how to get down on their own.”
We had a black and white cat our kids named Salt and Pepper. One winter day the cat went missing, everyone wondered where’s Salt and Pepper? We looked and looked. Finally I spotted it up a tree, but it didn’t respond. Got a ladder and discovered the cat was frozen solid. The dog had licked it a bunch and to get away it climbed a tree and couldn’t get down because it froze to the tree.
It would have been a skeleton if we had left it up in the tree long enough.
Lazy reporting indeed.
It’s local TV journalism.
So what if you flunk out of a junior college journalism class? You can still get a news job at the local TV station.
Reminds me of the young girl who stopped in traffic and got out to rescue an injured cat. She was hit and killed. Turns out the “cat” was a dead possum.
Oh the humanity!!
Sad. RIP.
“IT’S A DOG.”
Yes, and if it had been my dog I would have attempted to rescue it, as well. I’ve had many dogs over my long life, and every one of them was better than most people I’ve known throughout my life.
“...the top of the cliff is between 200 and 500 feet from the sand.”
At least it wasn’t “between 200 to 500” feet. That’s another fairly new grammer screw-up that has become common usage on TV news. 200 to 500 is a range, not a distance. How can anything be located between a range?
I would die trying to save my dog over a people anytime. I like dogs better.
A lot better.
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Dumshit left his dog off leash in that terrain? Hope the dog is all right.
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In that terrain? CA, right? I’m surprised having it off the leash was LEGAL...
My wife tells me not to be mean, so I won’t type what I said upon reading this. (Hint: Never had a “pet” animal. Never will. Never quite understood people who do - but I digress).
AHEM! So, here is my (obviously) generic comment that has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the mangy cur (er dog) in this case:
A 67-year old man’s got to know his limitations.
There. Just a common sense comment. Non-cur/dog judgmental.
A 67-year old man has no business trying to climb down a sand cliff to rescue ANYTHING.
Been on those sand cliffs. Notoriously slippery and unstable. Bad idea.
As a young teen, I climbed all over quartzite cliffs above my parents’ place out in the country at the foot of a mountain in NC, with my dogs. They were more adept at clambering around than I was, fortunately, after initially doing that dog “hit the ground, don’t move” thing after seeing the height. They got over it. Cool caves in the cliff face, I camped out there with friends several times, once in a snowstorm.
We never went to the highest part, which was at least 500 ft if not higher, we stuck to the 50 - 100 ft ones, but I did nearly have to be rescued once myself, climbing down to a ledge from above. That was far simpler than climbing back up, the cliff face looked vertical going down but leaned out in actuality. I stayed on that ledge for what seemed like hours before I figured out hand holds and foot holds to get out of there. The dogs were too sensible, they were whining at me from above, looking down and waiting.
Not a good idea to be doing that in wet weather either, I discovered. If it weren’t for a clump of mountain laurel I’d have gone over the edge at one point, very slippery.
RIP, he did it out of love and a sense of responsibility. It’s far too easy to have a day of fun turn tragic. Prayers for his loved ones and I’m sure his dog knows too. Sad all around.
Wow, I lived in the Sunset District of San Francisco for 14 years. Been to Daley City many, many, many times, but had no idea there were any cliffs or dropoffs or just really steep inclines that were 500 feet high... Yeah, I'd be inclined to go after my dog, too. And if you didn't know there was an abyss there waiting for you, or if it were dark or something, you could get in trouble real fast, particularly with it being covered with that iceplant crap. Sad for this poor guy and his pooch.
That dog was probably the old guy’s best friend. Totally loving and accepting, no matter what, always. Better than most all people.
Back-country rescues in Montana:
http://www.45pr.com/D.%20Sine_EMS%20and%20the%20Back%20Country.pdf
Especially great kudos to Two Bear Air! (http://www.twobearair.org)
The moral to this story:
Folks fall/slip/tumble.
Dogs are the only animal they specifically co-evolved with humans. Even so our eyes could see each others. Dogs and humans worked together to beat the neanderthals. Without them, who knows what would have happened.
“Dogs and humans worked together to beat the neanderthals.”
That’s an interesting bit of ... speculation ... and I’ll leave it at that...
Not to mention rattlesnakes, mountain lions, coyotes etc.
“Just west of Palisades Park” really pins it down. There is a 60 ft. wide strip there along the top of the cliff, which includes a network of paths, as per Google Maps 3-D. “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
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