Sorry Police again - poor cow

@carerlookingtochangejob oh ok. I think the vet has nailed it with their post. It could have been a manslaughter case! Hope he resigns if not dismissed. I don't know who he can show his face again after this.

Tbh food would probably not really have helped. Cattle when stressed won't eat and also this was a young recently weaned heifer. Who probably hasn't really had much in the way of concentrate feed. So probably wouldn't know what it was. In fact rattling a bucket may have scared it more.

@PriOn1 I was thinking about what action would have been taken had the calf gone through the windscreen and killed his passenger colleague? Surely that then would have been a manslaughter charge. The video footage showed the driver as being male. I hope like you, that all power is removed from him, he has clearly demonstrated that he is not up for the role of a police officer. If he is not dismissed then I would hope he would do the right thing and resign from the force. Either way he life is now screwed over that one dreadful decision.

Then they should have called someone who does. There are vets on call all the time, including government vets who deal with animal welfare. There are also local authority trading standards inspectors who also deal with animal welfare and could guide the police to someone local who would have known what to do.

And as a vet, I can confirm that the links between animal abuse and domestic and other kinds of violence are very well established. Any policeman who could do this (and I’d be willing to bet the driver was male) he should not be ever put in a situation where he has power over anyone.

Comparisons with shooting the animal are irrelevant. That would require higher level decisions and professionals coming in. It would be unlikely to be deployed anyway as it wouldn’t be safe in a built up area.

Whether it would be enticed with food while so worked up is impossible to say, but there is no doubt that the action that was taken was entirely inappropriate. Quite apart from anything else, had the animal gone up onto the bonnet of the car, the driver and any passenger could have been killed. Given the recklessness of the action, it’s a miracle it turned out as well as it did. It was entirely down to luck and not skill.

@carerlookingtochangejob thank you for someone finally talking some sense. I agree that if they had let the calf calm down they would have been able to secure it. Their actions just led to the calf becoming more and more agitated.

It was a young female calf. Not a herd of bullocks. There was no justification for the actions the police took.
No effort was made to contact the farmer or indeed any farmers to come and help.
Instead they chased it and wound it up before ramming it with a police car twice.

The calf had got out of the field by crossing a river.

It would have been easily contained if the officers had been calm. Backed off and contacted local farmers. Chasing animals rarely ends well.
This calf was no risk to the public. It is alive with no major injuries but could still die of shock.

@ThePoshUns They had hours to get some food whilst they were wasting time at a loss of what to do.

Yeah police go around why cow food in their cars in case of this situation

@Balhammom If there was a herd of them then yes I guess people could be injured. This was a lone calf that was running scared. Any damage it had caused (someone's car) was down to it being chased. The situation should have been dealt with calmly, getting the calf calmed down, enticing it towards food and then securing it. All of these could have been avoided. I don't expect the police to know a lot about animal care, welfare and behaviour, therefore they should have called someone that does that could have calmed the situation down, rather than causing mass hysteria.

College of Police guidance allows the use of firearms to euthanise animals if they pose a danger to public safety. Therefore, it’s very likely the duty inspector would have been considering this as an option.

While no one wants to harm livestock, my DH used to work in a semi-rural A&E and saw a number of patients who had suffered injuries from cattle (and not just bulls) and was aware of an least one (human) fatality. Therefore I can believe there is a real risk in these situations and that the police would have been hauled over the coals if a bystander came to harm.

Bloody disgusted by the police. Apparently the calf only had cuts- hope it’s safe and not killed or subjected to a life of being raped and giving birth for milk.

I think I’d rather be run over to be honest….

When I've seen cows loose in an urban environment they've been escapees from a slaughterhouse.

As for a connection with feminism - well, there's space for considering an abusive male dynamic with how livestock is treated. It's not my argument, but it's quite a well established feminist one.

@Balhammom 'shooting it dead' were the armed with firearms cops called then? I must have missed that.

For goodness sake. It’s a lone calf. I’ve ridden my horse through a herd of cows, they’re docile.

They didn’t subdue it using non lethal means, they ran it over and then tried to run over it’s head. If that’s the kind of logic you’re happy for your police force to have then ok but I’m sure as hell not.

@endofthelinefinally Yet it must be the farmers fault! 🙄. Lost stock is lost money, no farmer wants that.

I haven't seen the clip but you know police are not trained in animal husbandry

@endofthelinefinally Me too, no idea why misogny has been dragged in to it.

You only have to read a few threads by farmers/livestock owners on here to realise that members of the public are always leaving gates open, either due to stupidity, carelessness or malintent.

"It took them several hours to reach this decision? Really? Why not do the sensible thing of stopping chasing the 10 month old calf so it can calm down, get a bucket of feed and then catch it with a rope?"

This. Sadly the majority of people have no experience of animals and even less common sense.

However, I disagree that this had anything to do with misogyny. Just ignorance.

@Balhammom farmers cannot be prosecuted because of an animal escaping the field. The fence could have been damaged by a member of the public or the animal itself. Farmers do check their fences regularly, no farmer wants any of their livestock running loose.

Yes it was disgusting & absolutely should be investigated but that's a hell of a leap to suggest it was about sex/gender.

I live in Surrey and have had various contacts with the police including a very serious incident in which officers put themselves in a risky situation to help me. Without exception the officers & other staff were outstanding at all times & I owe my life to the police.

My victim support worker once commented about the hate of police on social media & said they work so hard to try to get vulnerable people (usually women in DV) to trust them just to have that undone by flippant & unhelpful comments on SM.

The incident with the cow does need investigating but to make the incident about Surrey police V women is just irresponsible.

Cows get loose all the time. They are rounded up and caught. It's not necessary to ram or injured them. (I've also not watched and won't).

It took them several hours to reach this decision? Really? Why not do the sensible thing of stopping chasing the 10 month old calf so it can calm down, get a bucket of feed and then catch it with a rope?

They made matters worse by the hysteria around it. The poor animal was frightened and confused and away from it's natural habitat. Why did they not call for assistance from someone who would actually know what to do. The calf was no danger to the public, it was running scared and the police officers called to the scene made it worse. Would they have acted the same if it was a loose horse. Animals do sometimes escape their field.

It was not only knocked over at high speed but ran over a second time with the vehicle over it. The hapless cops then just stood looking at it. Personally I am pleased the animal charities have got behind this and that the officer in question has been removed from frontline duties.

Lot of idiotic comments here, even for MN. A loose cow on public land is presenting a significant danger to anyone nearby and their property. The police presumably had a choice between either shooting the cow dead or subduing it using non-lethal means - which is what they did.

The only person who should be considered for prosecution is the farmer who failed to adequately secure his cattle.