Volunteers calling themselves the Arcadia Cowboys have pulled 23 cows, goats and donkeys out of DeSoto County floodwaters that trapped dozens of animals in high water starting last week. The group is still searching for one more donkey and one more goat, even as floodwaters begin to recede across the area.
According to Gulf Coast News and Weather, the volunteers spent hours cutting through fences and riding on horseback through flooded pastures to track down stranded livestock. Once an animal is found, the group hauls it to dry ground at a member's home, where it waits until its owner can come pick it up, the outlet reports. Not every rescue has had a happy ending — the cowboys said they found at least eight cows that had already drowned in the rising water.
Brady Adams, one of the Arcadia Cowboys, described the scene of cattle struggling in the floodwater as gut-wrenching, per the same report. Neighbors have joined the search effort as well; the article notes that some residents searched for animals by boat at night, combing through flooded pastures in the dark.
Peace River Begins to Recede After Record Crest
The flooding that trapped the animals traces back to the Peace River, which crested at 16.5 feet and was expected to drop out of major flood stage on Nov. 7, according to WINK News. Even with the river falling, the outlet reported that floodwater in the area remained high and was expected to take days to recede completely. The crest was notable because it rose to 16.5 feet during the dry season without a hurricane driving it, WINK reported in a separate account of a nearby rescue.
Arcadia neighbor Bobby Fussell pointed to drainage ditches across ranches and prairie land as part of the problem, telling WINK, “the water's running off too fast because everything's ditched to get off. So you're gonna have floods.” That same outlet detailed another rescue effort led by Pete Brewer and his crew, who used boats and horses to pull livestock out of water that in some spots reached six to seven feet deep as the river hit major flood stage. One WINK report counted 16 cows, a donkey and three goats in that rescue, while another WINK account of the same effort put the total at 16 cows, a donkey and four goats; the two reports do not agree on the exact goat count. Brewer's crew first herded animals by boat before returning the next day with horses to rope and remove them, and WINK reported that all of the animals in that rescue survived even as the surrounding riverside community stayed flooded.
Wildlife Park Reopening, Parks Still Closed
The flooding also forced Jungle Doria's Wildlife Park to move roughly 100 animals after the Peace River rose and swamped the property, according to My Suncoast. The outlet reported that the family running the park was bringing many of those animals back as conditions improved, and hoped to reopen that week while asking the public for help with cleanup. Floodwaters along the Peace River continued to drop in Arcadia as that cleanup got underway, the station noted.
Not everything has reopened, though. My Suncoast reported that Brownville Park and Boat Ramp, Morgan Park, and DeSoto Veterans Park and Boat Ramp all remained closed during the cleanup. A post on X from the account tropicalupdate described floodwaters at the Peace River Campground in Arcadia reaching major flood stage above 16 feet, after sitting at just 3 feet only days earlier, though that figure has not been independently verified.
For now, the Arcadia Cowboys' search continues for the last known missing animals — a donkey and a goat — as the broader rescue and recovery effort along the Peace River moves into its cleanup phase.
