Police run over calf - reasonable?

Police run over calf - reasonable?

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Somewhatfoolish

Original Poster:

4,652 posts

193 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
Video doing the rounds of police running over a calf, deliberately: https://x.com/ub1ub2/status/1801939257054859521

I appreciate that cows are by far the most dangerous animal in the UK and one running around a street isn't ideal. But even so this seems a bit excessive. Although it's easy to say this in hindsight...

DaveH23

3,292 posts

177 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
If you asked a 4 year old how to contain the situation, they could have come up with what happened.

The police though, Totally unnecessary. Even a bullet to the head would have been more humane than what they have done.

durbster

10,735 posts

229 months

Saturday 15th June
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What an awful video. Unless the cow was armed, it looks totally unnecessary.

Are these people who have never been outside London and don't know what a cow is or what?

Mammasaid

4,321 posts

104 months

Saturday 15th June
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Somewhatfoolish said:
I appreciate that cows are by far the most dangerous animal in the UK
WTAF???

More killed by dogs than cows, and a 6 month calf isn't the same as a field of cows with calves at foot.



Silvanus

6,040 posts

30 months

Saturday 15th June
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Completely unnecessary. Even someone remotely competent could have dealt with that without needing to run it over twice.

Somewhatfoolish

Original Poster:

4,652 posts

193 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
Mammasaid said:
WTAF???

More killed by dogs than cows, and a 6 month calf isn't the same as a field of cows with calves at foot.
Are you sure? That's very surprising. I'd far rather be with 20 random dogs than 20 random cattle.

But I agree that one calf doesn't seem to justify this. I was trying to be balanced in the OP but may have overdone it...

thisnameistaken

107 posts

35 months

Saturday 15th June
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wtf!?

bitchstewie

55,114 posts

217 months

Saturday 15th June
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Statement from Surrey Police.


cuprabob

15,700 posts

221 months

Saturday 15th June
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Surely they could have got a vet with a tranquilliser gun to take of it.

Evanivitch

22,075 posts

129 months

Saturday 15th June
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DaveH23 said:
If you asked a 4 year old how to contain the situation, they could have come up with what happened.

The police though, Totally unnecessary. Even a bullet to the head would have been more humane than what they have done.
Well clearly shooting an uncontained animal in a residential area is challenging and from the report they didn't kill it or mortally wound it.

Greendubber

13,821 posts

210 months

Saturday 15th June
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cuprabob said:
Surely they could have got a vet with a tranquilliser gun to take of it.
Devils advocate - How many of them are available at short notice and were able to get to the scene? Do we know that no efforts were made to track one down?

We've tried previously when animals have been running in the road and never been able to get one. Fortunately we managed to force them into an area and managed to get them contained.

Horrible video, I love cows but I'd like to think they'd tried and exhausted the other options before resorting to running it over. Hopefully it fully recovers swiftly.

Forester1965

2,801 posts

10 months

Saturday 15th June
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It was only a baba. Utter tossers doing what they did. I hope the officer involved is prosecuted.

grumbledoak

31,844 posts

240 months

Saturday 15th June
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What did they think it was going to do? It was a cow, wandering about. Not Godzilla on a rampage.

TwigtheWonderkid

44,665 posts

157 months

Saturday 15th June
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durbster said:
What an awful video. Unless the cow was armed, it looks totally unnecessary.

Are these people who have never been outside London and don't know what a cow is or what?
I'm from London, and wouldn't have a clue how to deal with a runaway cow. It's in a built up area, so, whilst knowing nothing about cows, would imagine it could be quite a dangerous situation. How would a human fare being run into by a frightened and panicking cow? The actual job of the police is protection of the public, not animal welfare.

Maybe questions need to be asked of the owner of the cow. How was it allowed to get free?

I'm sure if, 10 minutes later, the cow ran into someone and killed them, people would be saying "why didn't they run it over with a car when they had a chance, it's only a bloody cow?"


Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Saturday 15th June 16:28

Greendubber

13,821 posts

210 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
durbster said:
What an awful video. Unless the cow was armed, it looks totally unnecessary.

Are these people who have never been outside London and don't know what a cow is or what?
I'm from London, and wouldn't have a clue how to deal with a runaway cow. It's in a built up area, so, whilst knowing nothing about cows, would imagine it could be quite a dangerous situation. How would a human fare being run into by a frightened and panicking cow? The actual job of the police is protection of the public, not animal welfare.

Maybe questions need to be asked of the owner of the cow. How was it allowed to get free?
Exactly. It had already apparently knocked a lady over and the press release mentions it has been running at people, damaging cars etc so quite a high risk of someone being injured.

Imagine if they didn't, the perpetually outraged would be moaning about a lack of action I reckon.

The cow will recover and hopefully not do it's Houdini act again.

768

15,118 posts

103 months

Saturday 15th June
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Absolutely mental.

That the considered defence in the cold light of day is that they spent hours failing in other ways first is pretty farcical.

aka_kerrly

12,490 posts

217 months

Saturday 15th June
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Forester1965 said:
It was only a baba. Utter tossers doing what they did. I hope the officer involved is prosecuted.
That's completely over the top. This strikes me as a situation the Police could not come out looking good in, if they'd not bothered turning up and the cow continued running riot damaging property people would be complaining. The police turn up and use a method to stop the animal without killing it and people complain. Police show up and put a bullet in it's head , people complain.

No doubt if you'd been there you'd have a handy bit of rope and lassoed it before slinging it over your back and returning it to a field;)

popeyewhite

21,365 posts

127 months

Saturday 15th June
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It's a small calf. Call someone with suitable transport, surround the animal and get it in the transport.

Pica-Pica

14,468 posts

91 months

Saturday 15th June
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It was not ‘run’ over. Although a calf, it was still a sizeable beast. It was knocked down to contain it. All the other nonsense about herding it or calling a vet, is just that, nonsense. When cattle run amok, they can easily trample people to death.

Edited by Pica-Pica on Saturday 15th June 16:52

martinbiz

3,373 posts

152 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
Forester1965 said:
It was only a baba. Utter tossers doing what they did. I hope the officer involved is prosecuted.
Yes a 300kg baba that can do a lot of damage to persons/property.We don't tknow the full back story to this and it was probably the chosen option as a last resort to deal with situation as quickly as possible.Your post is like something you'd expect from a 10 year old, grow up!