Has there ever been a documented case of an (non-human) animal going to fetch help for someone in distress? (Specifically, trying to get the prospective rescue party to follow it).
Wasn’t that the whole reason for the St. Bernard breed of dog ?
Good point, but they were specifically trained to be search and rescue dogs - what I’m looking for is an example of an animal leaving the person in distress and somehow getting helpers to follow it back to the rescuee.
The only other occasion I can think of is the old mariners tale of dolphins helping stranded sailors. Again, this is not the animal going to fetch help, but rather the animal actually helping the person. Plus the obvious Achilles Heel - that it’s probably all bullshit.
Sorry. Looks like Jimmy’s gonna be down the mineshaft for a while…
There is a dog hero for each year from 1954 on; not all rise to the “Jimmy down the well” level of heroism, but many do.
Not sure how valid of a source it is, but I recently uncovered a book Mysteries of Animal Intelligence: True stories of animals with amazing abilities, written by Sherry Hansen Steiger and Brad Steiger. It documents stories such as “Foxy Rang the Bell and Brought Help for His Mistress” on page 30. ON page 84 is an interesting story, as well: “Toya braved mountains and snowdrifts to bring help to her injured owner.” According to the book, Sedrup Ole Hanssen went cross country skiing in Norway, with his son and a friend. They got seperated, Mr. Hanssen fell and dislocated his kneecap. Toya, a labrador-German sheperd mix, was with him. Hanssen stuck his ski cap in the dog’s collar and sent the dog for help. Toya found the son and friend, who followed the dog back (two miles) to the injured man.
Of course, googling the authors names provided this link. Clicking on ‘Meet Brad’ at the bottom reveals one of his honors was a 1987 induction to the Hypnosis hall of fame, so I’d take the stories in this book with a grain of salt.
I saw a story on tv the other day about a pig who went out and lay in the road to try to get cars to stop when her owner needed help in the house. (IIRC, she was in a diabetic coma or something). The pig squeezed in and out of the doggy door many times, to check on her in between cars that would pass by without stopping. Finally a car stopped and the pig got up and went into the house, making sure the man was following her, and the woman did get the help she needed. The pig was not trained to get help, but it was doing the only trick it knew, ‘play dead.’
I don’t have first hand experience with a situation like this, but I have witnessed my dog attempt to get me to follow her when she wants to show me something (a stranger outside, a squirrel, a toy she can’t reach, etc.) She will run up to me, then go ahead a ways and look back at me. If I don’t follow she will run up to me again and repeat, pretty much just like on tv. It doesn’t seem unlikely that many animals would have the desire to show someone when their owners are in distress. Some animals seem to understand the idea of getting someone else to show them, others react by sticking close to the person or thing and refusing to leave them.
Um, anything with Brad Steiger’s name on it contains “facts” of unreliable provenence.
Velma, did that pig have a wooden leg by any chance?
http://www.skippydog.com/doghero/Default.htm
Another whole bunch of dog heroes
Aw, I’ve seen this story, too. The poor little guy didn’t actually fit the door and his back and been scraped to bleeding from going in and out.
When I was a girl we had a cat who came and got our attention and led us to another one of our cats who was ill and in distress.
Not to mention the South African bird who locates a mammal, then gets the mammal to follow it to a bees nest. Mammal then hopefully breaks the nest and the bird eats the leftovers.
Sorry, no cite, I dont wanna Google “honey eaters” 
You are thinking of the Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator) which guides both humans and the badger-like Ratel, or Honey Badger, to bee’s nests. The bird eats mainly the beeswax and bee larvae while its accomplice snarfs up the honey.
And had the pig pulled the farmer out from under the turned over tractor?
I suppose pigeons have been used to send “help me” messages.
Brian
Sorry, I have nothing to offer in this thread, I was SOOOO hoping it was another like “Halfsie, the two legged dog”…carry on.
Interesting link, kunilou; it lists exactly the same dog heros as the one I linked to. I guess it’s not surprising since Skippy and Kibbles & Bits are both owned by Del Monte Foods. Just noticing, that’s all.
…and in my old neighborhood, the owner would have died and someones family was having pork chops for supper…
That pig story was on TV here in Japan the other day, too.
Something along these lines happened to a friend of the family.
While she was watching TV one evening, the dog came up to her and started barking franticly. When she just stared at him, he grabbed the hem of her skirt and began tugging until chunk of it ripped away. She shouted at him angrily, but he just grabbed on again. When she stood, he began yipping and wagging his tail, running down the hall a few feet and then running back to her. It finally dawned on her that the dog was trying to tell her something, and she followed him down the hall to the baby’s room. The baby was having a seizure.
I’d say that this probably happens more than people realize. Our friend’s story never made the papers, and I’m guessing that a lot of them don’t. So how would we ever know?