Firefighters called to help track down cows on the mooove

A pair of young cattle kept first responders hoofing it Monday night after they hopped a fence and went on the lam along the icy North Saskatchewan River.

The hours-long chase involved multiple fire crews, two ranchers on horseback and even a police helicopter, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services spokeswoman Maya Filipovic said Tuesday.

Two women who farm in the Rabbit Hill area to the southwest of the city had recently purchased a pair of one-year-old calves. The calves jumped a five-foot-high fence and ran off into the brush along the river, Filipovic said.

The ice along the river was thick enough for the calves to travel on. The cows’ owners attempted to follow them on horseback, but were eventually stopped by thick brush and called firefighters for help about 9 p.m.

The service dispatched a “couple” of crews and a district chief, Filipovic said.

The firefighters tried to spot the fast-moving cows from the riverbank, to no avail.

Eventually, the district chief spotted them near the Blackhawk golf course and Air 2, one of the city ’s police helicopters, was called in and trained a spotlight on the fugitive cattle.

The district chief then got in touch with the owners, who planned to leave some food for the calves and wait for them to calm down before bringing in ropers to wrangle them, Filipovic said.

Fire crews left around 11 p.m. after confirming with the owners that they would not go out onto the ice themselves to attempt a rescue.

“The calves had food, there was water all around them,” said Filipovic. “They were just basically too wild for anyone to catch safely at that point.”

Firefighters never found out if the cows were successfully rescued, she added.

“(The owners) wanted definitely to wait until daylight, after the cows presumably got a night’s sleep,” Filipovic said.