A dog went over the edge of the cliffs at Fort Funston early Saturday afternoon, and when its owner tried to climb down after it, she got stuck too. San Francisco firefighters began setting up a rope system while the woman made her way down to the beach. Both the woman and dog were later found to be okay, with neither suffering any injuries.
San Francisco Fire Department crews responded to the park at roughly 1 p.m. for a report of a dog that had gone over the cliff, with its human companion following after it, according to the San Francisco Fire Department Media
. On arrival, crews confirmed one dog and one adult on the cliff side north of the hang glider deck. The dog had gone down roughly 50 or 60 feet, and the woman became stuck while trying to rescue it herself, according to
CBS San Francisco
.
Rope Team Sent Down the Bluffs
Crews began setting up a rope system as the woman made her way down to the beach. The SFFD account confirmed that both were evaluated and found to be okay before the incident was closed.
The SFFD account serves the City and County of San Francisco, SFO, the Presidio and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and directs the public to call or text 911 for emergencies or call 311 for non-life-threatening hazards.
A Familiar Hazard Along the Bluffs
Saturday's rescue was not an isolated event. Just a week earlier, on October 17, two adults and two dogs were rescued from the same 200-foot sandstone bluffs with no injuries reported, according to Local News Matters. Fort Funston is marked with signs reading “Stay back from the edge” and “Unstable cliff,” according to KQED, which reported that SFFD crews were called to the cliffs 165 times over a five-year period, including 97 rescues.
Only three of those 97 rescues were actually for dogs, KQED's reporting found — the rest involved people, often those who had gone over the edge trying to save a pet that was ultimately able to climb back up on its own. Saturday's incident also involved a human companion following a dog down the bluff.
A Pattern of Close Calls at the Park
Fort Funston's cliffs have produced a string of similar incidents in recent years. In October 2025, a dog fell about 40 feet over the edge and was pulled out in a low-angle rope rescue, emerging uninjured and reunited with its owner, per CBS San Francisco. In February 2024, a 12-year-old became trapped on a 300-foot section of cliff, prompting a California Highway Patrol helicopter to lower a firefighter about 150 feet down by cable to reach him, according to NBC Bay Area.
In June 2023, firefighters rescued a man and two dogs from the cliffs, bringing the dogs to safety a little more than an hour after the operation began, according to the San Francisco Examiner. KQED also noted that in 2019, a young woman died at Fort Funston when eroded sand gave way and buried her, a friend and their dog on the beach below.
