Stubborn Cow Tasered When It Wouldn't Get Off The Road

[matcom]

<snip>

CRESTVIEW, Fla. -- Crestview residents face an unusual kind of traffic delay: cows. And a stubborn, 500-pound cow had to be tasered when it wouldn't get off the road.

A broken fence helped the cow escape. Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies and animal control officers used hay to try and lure the cow off the road and back into the pasture.

That didn't work. One deputy was even dragged while holding onto a rope. That's when they decided to Taser the cow.

She was later given a tranquilizer by a veterinarian and returned to her owners.

Deputy Mark Raiche said it wasn't his first encounter with a cow on the road. He said it's something he responds to frequently.

The cow was not injured. And the fence has been fixed.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/11182036/detail.html

[mainegreen]

1. FLORIDA!

[johnnie]

2. Phewwww

At least the fence has been fixed.

[mikeiddy]

3. Washington cow wasn't so lucky . . .

Loose cow Tasered by deputies dies

Spokesman Review
April 13, 2006

Spokane County sheriff's deputies killed a stray cow Wednesday morning after repeatedly stunning it with a Taser when the animal wandered in traffic near Spokane Valley Mall.

State law requires deputies "to do whatever you can do to keep somebody from dying as a result of collision with a cow," said sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Two other cows that escaped in the morning – sometime before 6:45 a.m. – were rounded up by their owners.

The animal that wasn't caught had been trotting up and down Sullivan Road and at one point got onto a freeway ramp, Reagan said. He said the bovine had been loose for more than four hours when deputies cornered it about 11 a.m. between the mall and Interstate 90.

Advertisement
"This was at Sprague and Sullivan," Reagan said. "It's one of the hot spots for accidents out in the Spokane Valley, and you just can't walk away."

Several deputies – who had seen a video of a Brahman bull being incapacitated by a Taser – decided to stun the creature and tie its legs with a long leather strap ordinarily used to restrain kicking humans. But the cow recovered before the strap could be used.

"We're not cowboys," he said. "I don't believe we have any rodeo champions on staff."

Consequently, deputies zapped the cow "again and again" and the animal died, Reagan said.

No action was planned against the owner of the cow, but Reagan warned that livestock owners need good fences in increasingly urban Spokane Valley.

– John Craig

[Elidor]

4. Is there anything a taser can't do?

I wouldn't be surprised if cops taser their dinners instead of using a microwave. And tasers are probably the only way some of them can get laid. Fucking idiots.

[raccoon]

5. This sounds like something out of a Carl Hiaasen novel. nt