The calf that was mown down

Did you see the video? That was not a fully grown cow!

If two tottery OAPs can deal with a fully grown cow FGS then even the most spineless idiot could martial a young heifer.

It is absolute nonsense snd making a drama out of what should have been a problem quietly solved.

Just how dim are these police?

As an example. We were cycling along the camel trail, and came across a fully grown loose cow, we simply got off our bikes found a field gate and found we could open it, went back and gradually shooed the animal into the field, closed the gate and then cycled into wadebridge and told the police, who guessed the name of the farmer - took details of which field and job done.

No fuss, no drama. And certainly no cruelty.

And we were in our late 60s!

Their over the top actions remind me of the way they treated that small red headed woman when she attended a memorial for Sarah Everard.

Why would anyone join the police

It seems some people are not fit to join the police. Especially one who thinks ramming a cow with a car is an acceptable way to bring it under control.

Good question Iam!

It was a horrible video though...

I heard the interview this morning with The President of one of the Farmers Unions.

He said that the Police had tried for two hours and had been unable to get a local vet to come out, and that despite ringing local farmers none were able to attend.

He supported the Police actions, in his opinion it was far better to knock the calf down than let it get on to a major road and cause an accident which could have ended with a dead calf or dead humans.

I am not a farmer, and have limited contact with cows.

Completely unnecessary. It was a frightened calf not some fully grown cow running amok on a motorway.

As per, an episode like this gives some a reason to generalise about the police and be rude about them. The vast majority are decent men and women doing their best but they don't make the headlines, do they?

What on earth has the police reaction at Sarah Everard's vigil got to do with an escaped calf?!!!

Somehow I just don't believe a vet would not have been able to come out especially if the calf were likely to cause an accident on a major road. Or actually requested to come out. And paid by the police.

I don't believe the police. They have covered up too many times to earn my trust.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Media frenzy again.

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

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.

Foxie48 I am with you in this 👍

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

Mind you I suppose 20 policemen were probably not enough.

Look how many it took to restrain Patsy Stevenson.