A few years after I started working for the fire department in the city I grew up next to we got a call to assist the police with two cows that had kicked open the rear door on the trailer that they had been riding down the freeway in. Miraculously they were not seriously injured when they fell out. They had taken refuge in the brush and black berry bushes behind a Denny’s Restaurant. One of them had given itself up before we arrived. The other was munching on whatever greenery it could find.
When we arrived there were police cars everywhere. The guy who was in charge came over and said that they needed one of our ladders so that a sharp shooter from their SWAT team could get a good shot at the cow. I said let me find a bucket and some gravel and I will get that cow back into the trailer.
He replied, “NO! It’s too late for that! This is a dangerous wild range cow!”
I went over and talked to the lady who had been hauling the cows while my officer and the 3rd man provided the ladder the police had requested. She said that the cows were her neighbor kids’ 4H projects and that they had been raised on the 2 acres behind their house.
The police shot the cow about 10 times with .223 bullets before it finally fell over and died. It was very sad and cruel. I hope that no one ever told the girl that raised it what happened to her pet 4H cow. I am sure that she would have been heart broken.