Romeo was down on his luck, stuck in a 20-foot-deep crack in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, but Ranger Arnold Nakata was able to rescue him/NPS

Human rescues are fairly commonplace in the National Park System, but it's not every day that rangers have to rescue a dog. That was the case at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, where a chocolate lab stumbled into a 20-foot-deep crack in the earth.

Four-and-a-half-year-old Romeo and another dog were being walked off-leash by their owner Saturday night near the Volcano golf course and the park boundary when the dogs ran off into a heavily vegetated area.

One dog came back, but Romeo did not.

The owner searched into the night but could not locate him. When she returned to the area in the morning, she heard a faint whining coming from deep within an earth crack and called for help.

Park rangers responded to the call, assessed the situation, and determined that a safe extraction could be accomplished by the experienced team. Using high-angle technical rope rescue techniques, Ranger Arnold Nakata was lowered 20 feet into the narrow crack where he found Romeo in good condition. Ranger Nakata rigged Romeo with a harness and the topside rescue team slowly pulled them out of the ground. A grateful Romeo bestowed his rescuers with lots of dog kisses.

Typically, the national park would not use technical rescue for animals. Dogs and other pets are not allowed in many areas of the national park for safety reasons, and for the protection of threatened and endangered species. Authorized service animals are permitted, but may be prohibited from certain areas if their presence is detrimental to park management programs, like nēnē recovery.

All pets and service dogs must be leashed in the park at all times. Hikers have reported being bitten by dogs off leash on park trails, and other pets have fallen into earth cracks and steam vents and have not survived.

“We are glad that this rescue had a happy ending, because our pets are like family. The best way to protect them is not expose them unnecessarily to potentially hazardous areas that are prevalent in a national park,” said Hawai'i Volcanoes Superintendent Cindy Orlando.