GREENBANK, Wash. — Jerry Lloyd knows horses.
Lloyd owns five of them and understands how they operate.
"Horses have a knack for being curious and getting themselves in trouble," Lloyd said.
It's for that reason Jerry is recruiting and training people to come to the rescue of large animals through the group Animal Advocates of Island County.
Lloyd said there are hundreds of century-old wells, cisterns and septic tanks all over Whidbey Island that are unstable and could easily trap horses, cattle, or other animals. Even people.
"The other problem is the health department doesn't know where they are," Lloyd said. "They were hand-dug in the late 1800s. They're out there."
The likelihood of someone or something falling into a well may seem remote, but it happened in Whidbey just two years ago.
A horse named Blaze fell down a well in Oak Harbor in March 2022.
It was part luck and part skill that saved Blaze.
Skill from technical Navy search and rescue workers. And, luckily, there happened to be an excavator sitting on a neighbor's property ready to hoist the 2,000-pound horse to safety.
The horse emerged from the well with just a few scratches.
Lloyd was there to help, as well.
"I wasn't surprised it went so well, I was astonished," Lloyd said. "I go back to this: it takes a village and the village showed up."
Lloyd said he has the equipment needed including an excavator. He just needs a dedicated group of volunteers to answer the call to action.
Veterinarians, firefighters, heavy equipment operators.
Lloyd hopes there will never be a need for the team, but as long as hidden risks remain all across Island County, he plans to be ready.
"It takes a team," Lloyd said. "It takes a village. You need people to show up."