Cow Escapes Slaughter, Gets Shot by Cop

A cow that jumped a 6-foot fence when it was about to be slaughtered led cops on a wild chase through the streets of Pocatello, Idaho, before it was shot dead and brought back to the slaughterhouse. The 1,000-pound heifer—which kept running after a police officer shot it once in the head—rammed two police cars and an animal control vehicle during the chase, which ended when it was cornered in a backyard 3 miles from the meatpacking plant and killed by another shot to the head, reports the Idaho State Journal. Police say the cow was shot because it posed a danger to the public and could have trampled people in the residential neighborhoods it fled through.

But the escape attempts weren't over at Anderson Custom Pack, which is now being investigated by animal control authorities. A few days after the heifer escaped last Thursday, four more cows escaped from the same slaughterhouse; two are still believed to be at large. One of the four was shot by an Anderson employee, while another was captured the day after the escape and brought back to the plant, reports the Idaho Statesman. The plant's owners believe the four cows escaped after somebody deliberately pushed a gate open. With beef prices rising fast, the missing cows are worth around $1,500 each, and the plant initially believed they had been stolen. (In Ireland last month, Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon helped save a gay bull from the slaughterhouse.)