Local News

Firefighters in R.I. called to help camel stand up

The camel weighs about 2,000 pounds, according to its owner.

Firefighters responded to a Rhode Island farm to help Harley the camel stand back up. Courtesy of Henry Cabrera

December 17, 2024

2 minutes to read

Rhode Island firefighters responded to quite an unusual call on Sunday.

Henry Cabrera, owner of Lavender Waves Farm, called to report that his Arabian camel, Harley, was having trouble standing up.

Cabrera said he noticed that Harley, who was lying on an incline, looked unwell, so he tried to help him stand up, but to no avail. Harley weighs about 2,000 pounds.

“I think it was pure mechanics and physics because his hump was on the downward side of the hill, so his legs were kind of facing up the hill,” Cabrera, who owns five of the six privately held camels in all of Rhode Island, told Boston.com. “It was just mechanically impossible for him to get his 2,000 pound body up.”

It quickly became apparent to Cabrera that he was going to need to call for help. He tried calling some of his crafty friends for ideas, but none of them seemed to know what to do.

That’s when he called the fire department.

“He made me repeat myself several times,” Cabrera said of his phone call with the Union Fire District of South Kingston. “It took him a couple minutes to sort of believe me, but ultimately they did.”

Soon after, Cabrera said several firefighters arrived with four different vehicles.

“Lo and behold. Now they believed me,” he said. “The camel was down.”

Cabrera said it took over an hour for him and the firefighters to figure out how to lift Harley. Finally, the group put a strap around the camel’s hump to sit him up.

“He was kind of wobbly at first,” Cabrera said. “He got up and he was fine after that.”

After Harvey was back on his feet, Cabrera gave the firefighters a tour of his farm. Lavender Waves Farm has over 4,000 lavender plants and a luxury Airbnb farm suite, according to its website. In addition to camels, Cabrera’s farm has alpacas, llamas, chickens, ducks, guinea hens, geese, and white peacocks.

For the fire department, the incident was “one of their top five calls,” but for Cabrera, not so much.

“It was clearly a call that they enjoyed,” Cabrera said. “I wasn’t too happy about the whole thing. I was a little bit embarrassed, but I didn’t know who else to call.”