The calf that was mown down

Surely rural police have training in managing large animals like horses and cattle and sheep? Vehicles and noise can scare them and worsen the situation by causing a terrified animal to panic, anyone who is not a total idiot.knows that. If they don't have training and processes in place then it's a terrible failure on behalf of basic rural police training.

I was shocked at first but then read a report which said the police had tried to find the farmer /owner and could not and they had tried to get a vet to dart the animal to sedate it but none were available. The police are not trained in how to dart an animal and so it was decided to stop it in the way we have seen. The farmer has now said that the animal is fine and it was the right thing to do. What would we all be saying if the animal had trampled a child or injured a person? The animal had been on the run for quite a few hours by all accounts and they had been unable to stop it any other way.

Sorry, adrenaline, not insulin!

It's not as simple as firing a tranquilliser dart. Animals on the run and scared have high levels of insulin in their system so tranquillisers don't work.
In 2020 my son and I went to Whipsnade Zoo and saw some delightful young bears playing in their pool. Some time later they escaped and got into the wolverines enclosure, killing at least one. They were shot dead because tranquillisers would not have worked. Very sad, and I cried for ages over it.

Well done! I felt awful for that poor calf. Some people just do not have any sense at all!

foxie48

Apparently 8 month old heifers weigh an average of 200KG, just imagine that slamming into you, it could cause life threatening injuries.
"Your overriding priority is to save life, which includes your own, that of the victim and members of the public." Police operating instructions.

Thanks foxie48

Everyone I know that works with cattle have been injured at one time or another; usually broken legs. I’ve been chased into the corner of a field by bullocks when I didn’t know they were in a field ( it was L shaped). DH saw a cow run down a fox in its field one day. My friend was nearly gored to death by a Highland cow that she’d just bought. I’m very very wary of them; wouldn’t go near one unless there was a fence between us!The only time I will walk by them is in the winter when they roam the dunes. Most animals are calmer in winter, they aren’t in an enclosed area and I know there are no calves around. There has been a sign put up in a local country park about the deer breeding season warning people not that the deer are dangerous when there are fawns around.

Apparently 8 month old heifers weigh an average of 200KG, just imagine that slamming into you, it could cause life threatening injuries.
"Your overriding priority is to save life, which includes your own, that of the victim and members of the public." Police operating instructions.

The police aren't trained in lassoing. This isn't the wild west. I also don't believe there were 20 officers there.

The media have as usual caused an outrage amongst the armchair critics.

Sparklefizz

Anniebach

The calf was hit to the ground, why ram it again ?

...Because it got up again.

Taking that to its ultimate logic you would continue to ram it until it died.

Anniebach

The calf was hit to the ground, why ram it again ?

...Because it got up again.

Mind you I suppose 20 policemen were probably not enough.

Look how many it took to restrain Patsy Stevenson.

The calf was hit to the ground, why ram it again ?

Foxie48 I am with you in this 👍

Germanshepherdsmum

20 officers! And they couldn’t deal with it!

It’s the fact that there were 20 police officers in attendance allegedly that I find difficult to believe.

20 officers! And they couldn’t deal with it!

Media frenzy again.

Ah well. Here they would have shot it. At least it was allowed to live.

It was said there were about 20 police officers there , 1 calf v
20 officers !

Indeed, but presumably several policemen could have attended and dealt with it. They usually have ropes in traffic cars.

A young cow can weigh around 400 pounds. Not easy to handle when panicked.

I don’t think we’re as stupid as you imply, David.

Most have no idea how difficult it is to catch an animal, even a large sheep is very hard to catch unless it is closely confined, this animal is much larger. Even if it could have been lassoed it would take several men to hold it

I absolutely loathe cruelty to animals but I'm not surprised they couldn't find a vet or a farmer to come out to assist. It's hard enough to find a large animal vet even in farming areas, no one wants to do it as it's dirty, dangerous and the hours are dreadful. Also vets don't have access to anything that will stop a panicking animal from a distance, they need to be up close to sedate and it doesn't seem as if that was possible. fwiw once adrenaline kicks in, animals lose all sense of self protection and can be very dangerous. My experience is with horses and tbh I would not want to try to stop even a small pony that is panicking unless it was my own and then I'd be extremely wary and would try to herd it into a field, not stop it. My local farmer used to have a dairy herd and he was up to start topping my land yesterday. He would not have turned out either! I hate the idea of ramming a calf but I can totally understand why it was done.

Police officers are expected to deal with so many situations from violent people to panicked animals. The former they are trained for but not the latter.
Their first priority is to protect the public and as a last resort they used the car to stop the cow before it hurt or killed someone. They had tried other means for hours. No vets responded to their pleas for help or anyone else who may have been able to help.
I wonder what people thought they should do? Let the out of control cow carry on attacking people. The farmer said they were right to stop the cow by any means.