Just in time for the big PETA conference, a renegade pregnant cow was put down today at the State Fair, after they were unable to corral her:
So, in a story that involves a pregnant cow getting shot to death, CBS13 decided to put up a pic of a cow’s behind.
Stay classy, CBS13.
The Sac Rag 
I am sad. As a fellow vessel of life giver, I will vow to avenge the people that were so inadequate, they couldn’t calm a cow. I hope they have their segways charged, as tomorrow I will show them a frantic pregnant scene.
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Protesters will be at the main gate of the Fair today at 11:30.
Unfortunately, it appears that they will be protesting the birthing of animals at the Fair, which isn’t going to fly IMO. I think they should stick to the “you really didn’t have to kill the cow” message.
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I’m wondering if they tried to taze the cow first… What sound would a tazed cow make.
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What? It’s the circle of life.
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Very cowous Meg. Everyone has a steak in these animals’ well-being. I was mooved to tears by the story.
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Turty’s really milking the puns for all they’re worth
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This story bothered me on a couple of different levels. It seems like cops always freak when they see a loose cow: as soon as Bossy hits the streets, guns are drawn, blood is spilt. I don’t recall any laws saying all livestock, or for that matter, ostrich, deer, dogs, etc. must be killed on sight if they’re outdoors without a leash.
But as a alum of UC Davis it really bugs me that a vet from my esteemed alma mater okayed the cow’s execution. When a friend’s dog died on the table during routine surgery at the UCD veterinary hospital, she commented that the only animals the vets there know how to work on are cadavers. So maybe the university’s vet wasn’t used to dealing with a living, breathing cow.
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NOthing but the best for UCD vets from this end. And I’m not going to second guess a call to shoot after the fact. Feel free to camp out at the next fair and vollunteer to deal with escaped cattle.
Cops don’t want to deal with cows because they are large, unpredictable, and strong. Cops don’t get bonus pay for dealing with them (and can’t sue [successfully] if injured in the line of duty by a cow), and there ain’t no “talking her down.” Maybe the lesson is that animals, even farm animals, can be dangerous?
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I have no issue with the police doing their job… they are not animal trainers after all. They have relatively few tools to choose from in this situation. But it’s pretty disappointing that it ever got to this level.
I grew up on a cattle farm in Wisconsin (you know, the unhappy cows from the commercials?).
If we shot a pregnant cow 11 times because it was agitated and on the loose we would have been laughed out of town. Welcome to our zero risk Nerf Society where everything is treated like a terrorist attack!
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I was out of town, so I’m late to the party but this is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. If only there had been a way to coerce the cow into moving in a certain direction, sort of like how a herd of sheep moves. A man who specializes in cows. A cowman, if you will. Perhaps he would have been able to invent on the spot some sort of way to entangle the cow using a length of rope. An easy way would have been to make a loop to fit over the cow’s head, but how to make the loop tighten!!!? Oh fuck it, shoot the fucking thing.
[/sarcasm]
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I’d pay $$$$ to watch CoolDMZ and up to 10 other guys loop a cow’s head and control it. While avoiding the little kids running around the fair.
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It was prior to opening, so there were no kids there (except maybe the children of the ranchers who were there watching their livestock…hey wait a minute)
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Thousands of years of domestication have made the dairy cow an extremely docile animal. Even at its full weight of 1,500 lbs. a Holstein cow is extremely easy to herd and control.
I also didn’t want to further humiliate the State Fair cops by mentioning this, but since Turty has forced my hand—my kids, who were raised in Minnesota in an area where cows outnumbered people 50 to one, knew how to herd a “raging” cow out of our sweet corn when they were old enough to run with a stick and a rope. My younger daughter preferred riding her pony out after them for the effect—the two of them together rose to a full five feet tall—but the cows knew not to tangle with her and “Speedy.” They always left, slowly and in an orderly procession, back to their pasture next door.
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Sundog should train all cops on how to deal with cows, and elephants, and mental patients (with/without weapons/vehicles), and tree pruning, and open-throttle vehicles (bulldozers/tanks/cars/trucks/ATVs…), and meteors, and … And Sundog should respond to a few emergencies (Sundog enters the building first) and try his/her Crocodile Dundee cr@p magic on the perp before criticizing law enforcement.
PROTECT, and SERVE the PUBLIC. If it’s a danger and non-compliant, shoot it/ram it/kill it. Cops don’t have to put their lives further in danger so Sundog doesn’t “feel bad for the [cow/mental patient/tree/etc.]” A cop’s role is not to “talk people down” or “find a less lethal solution.” That
is what social services is for (paid for by tax payers, many of whom would rather shoot first). When the police are involved and they are the ones making the decision: 1) Protect the public, 2) Eliminate the danger, 3) Perp(s) in custody, if possible. Never question an officer’s judgment unless you have made a spur of the moment life and death decision yourself.
We could just as easily be discussing why 3 cops died trying to subdue a cow. I’ll side with the cops on this every single time. And if you’ve ever called 911, you should too.
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Goodness, who knew a single Holstein cow could inspire such fear and dread in Turty_Squip?
I hope you aren’t watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, Turty. Next you’ll be demanding we shoot all of the carnivorous marine beasts in the Pacific in order to protect any human who might venture into the surf.
Law enforcement officers actually receive a great deal of training in dealing with difficult, tense situations. But not with tense, difficult cows, apparently.
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Actually I see both Turty and Sundog are both right on this one.
We had an extremely agitated cow once that broke loose while we were castrating her calf. She broke through a couple 3 rail fences trying to reach the calf, which was in stocks. So yeah cows can get pretty ornery. But the strategy is the same… either people and vehicles even guns firing in the air to guide the cow into a confined area. Or use ropes and tie off the cow to something heavy. On our hillbilly farm this would usually be a guy in the back of a pickup truck with the rope tied to the trailer hitch.
This is where I see the failure is in the vets and folks in the livestock area at the fair. If they let a situation get out of control requiring armed police to get involved, it is pretty reasonable to expect the next event will be the cow getting shot.
But this being California after all, I am sure there were 20 official sounding people telling everyone that the situation was under control and to back away, instead of asking if there was a rancher iin the house.
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