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Runaway cows stop traffic on Trans-Canada Highway

Runaway cows

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Two black steers brought noon-hour traffic to a standstill yesterday on the Trans-Canada Highway in Saanich, B.C., after they escaped the trailer that was driving them to the slaughterhouse.

“The cows have been leading us on a wild chase here,” Constable Mark Haggan of Westshore RCMP traffic services told CBC News.

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Farmer Doug Alberg was driving five head of cattle to the slaughterhouse in Duncan, B.C, when a pin that was securing his trailer’s gate came loose, allowing the two cows to make a run for it.

“Somebody honked when they were alongside me and I looked in the mirror and I see — there are cows on the road,” Alberg said.

Police officers, firefighters and conservation officers were called to the scene, where they worked together to try to the corral the runaway animals. One steer was lassoed and herded into a truck easily. The other was not about to go without a fight.

“We don’t have the resources or equipment to corral a cow of this size,” Haggan told CBC News. “If it wants to go one way it’s going to go that way.”

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The second cow ran across four lanes of highway, over a concrete barrier and into a grassy patch. Eventually it ran into a backyard and ended up in the water.

“He slowed himself down going into the water,” David Farmer, who owns the property where the cow sought refuge, told the Times Colonist. “There were at least 10 police officers trying to hold him and he was just throwing them around. He had incredible strength.”

All southbound lanes of the highway were closed so that the officers could lasso the animal and get it back in its trailer.