NYPD’s bull runners told: Cowboy up!
Is there a cowboy in the house?
New York could use one, after cattle escaped from urban slaughterhouses three times in the past 13 months on wild runs through the streets.
One fugitive bull led a posse of flustered, armwaving cops Tuesday on a chase through Queens that was televised live from news helicopters. Police ultimately cornered the bull in someone’s back yard, but the animal, hit by multiple tranquilizer darts, died shortly thereafter.
Real bull-wrangling experts say the officers can be commended for trying their best, but there’s definitely a better way, if you’ve got someone on hand who knows how to twirl a lariat.
They say stick with a rope, try approaching by horse or on foot and skip the tranquilizer guns, or at least fire fewer shots.
“You load a horse on a trailer and you go find the bull and rope the bull and put it in the trailer,” says Parke Greeson, a cowboy from a cattle ranch in Lubbock, Texas. “It’s just like getting dressed and putting your shoes on. You just do it.”
Without tranquilizers, he added.
Greeson, 25, speaks from experience. He and a cowboy buddy once rushed to the rescue with lassoes when a pair of cows got loose on a Texas highway.
They roped one from the back of a pickup truck. They nabbed the second one on horseback in Lubbock’s business district.
Unfortunately, there were no cowboys on hand this past week to help the NYPD capture the black bull that ran amok.
For much of the chase, officers tried unsuccessfully to maneuver their vehicles to box in the bovine. Tranquilizer darts appeared to have little effect — until the end.
“The officers were trying to do what they’re supposed to do — protect people, not cattle — but they did a lot of things wrong,” said Susie Coston, director of the Farm Sanctuary upstate, which works with the city to adopt runaway animals.
For one thing, she said, the officers could have backed off for a bit to let the sedatives take effect.
“They chased the bull while firing one dart after another, so the animal’s adrenaline shoots up and there’s no chance for the tranquilizer to work and calm him down,” she said.