Police Lost the Plot Again

BBC News – Driver of police car used to hit cow is removed from duty
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11p105wv4o

I suppose contacting local farmer was to difficult.

I suppose contacting local farmer was to difficult.

Is there a 24hr local farmer rapid response hotline?

Although that looked more like a calf than a full grown adult, they are big animals and considered dangerous.

300+kg of frightened animal(calf weight)-(1200kg average weight for an adult) running about the streets with members of the public, kids, babies in prams. Cops made the best decision.

I suppose contacting local farmer was to difficult.

Who would’ve done what exactly?

Yep lazy opportunity to bash the police, we weren’t there, we didnt have to make the decisions. Let’s leave judgment to the IPCC. Must be a nightmare being a cop wondering if every split second decision you make under stressful and difficult circumstances is going to be overly judged by arm chair dwelling internet warriors and police haters.

You would think they’d have a procedure for this, but no Police hate from me until all the facts come out.

I’m usually the last to back the police but on this occasion I think the inappropriately-named Cleverly should have kept his trap shut. Runaway cattle can be dangerous beasts and unless the police routinely have a big game hunter with a tranquiliser gun on standby to deal with this sort of scenario, their decisions might have been the best option in a difficult situation. NB I’m not saying it was definitely the right thing to do, maybe others have better suggestions.

Is there a 24hr local farmer rapid response hotline?

I’m not sure how the fact that there isn’t, prevents you for asking if one might help anyway?

Not an observation on whether that would actually achieve anything btw. I just thought it was an uncharacteristically facetious reply from a normally sensible poster that maybe wasn’t merited

I’m not sure how the fact that there isn’t, prevents you for asking if one might help anyway?

Bit confused what some random farmer is going to achieve with someone else’s cow that’s been supposedly running wild for hours, before we even get to the question of liability should a member of the public (random farmer) be injured. Surrey police would’ve got less grief if they’d just shot it.

Bit confused what some random farmer is going to achieve with someone else’s cow that’s been supposedly running wild for hours

No a lot probably, that wasn’t my point.

I saw that video on Twitter this morning alongside thousands of outraged replies, a pile on to the police.

As above though – spooked cattle are stupid and dangerous. If it had gone trampling through a crowd of people, there’d be calls asking why the police hasn’t stopped it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Been aware of this crazy incident for a day, but not long been aware the calf didn’t die.

Is there a 24hr local farmer rapid response hotline?

as far as I know all agricultural vets offer 24hr emergency callout due to the nature of the industry. 10s on Google shows one 40 mins drive away in Guildford – the article says the situation was “ongoing for several hours” (during which time no-one got hurt, it seems).

I believe he’s not been suspended, just given a wee calf….

Is there a 24hr local farmer rapid response hotline?
I’m not sure how the fact that there isn’t, prevents you for asking if one might help anyway?

Just my experience of having to find who the nearest farmer is, and then once you have, being able to contact them, aren’t really things you can often do in a hurry. Last time I had to do it, it took weeks.

You’d presume the owner of the cow couldn’t have been all that far away – or rather the farm can’t have been far away. But that doesn’t make the farm identifiable or the farmer, who could be anywhere, contactable.

I don’t understand why a vet with a tranquilliser gun wasn’t called. Or, worst case, armed response deal with it humanely. Battering it with a car seems stupid.

None of us have the facts.

My understanding is that armed officers can be called to shoot animals in these situations,  so the fact that the cow was recovering in the last report I saw suggests it got away lightly.

I came across 8 loose cattle one day riding home from work. They were a few hundred metres away from getting properly loose on the road.

Not a single.member of the public who I asked to help me was prepared to do so. I managed to corral them in a neuk, and kept them there but literally waving my arms and talking to them.

I called 999 and 3 Police officers attended, and we managed to return them to a field with similar looking cows in it.

Everybody I spoke to about it said “Why didn’t you call the farmer?”

Aye, I’ve got the number right here, as I looked it up on http://www.random-farmer.com. Halfwits.

My only relevant cow experience was on a club ride on Exmoor, we were (legally) crossing some field tops from gate to gate when ‘the farmer’ flagged us down at a gate and asked us, as his hands / sons were driving some bullocks through the set of fields would we mind waiting. And in fact, if we lined up along the track at the top, then instead of going through the gate into the field and dispersing, and then needing rounding up again, we’d be able to keep them up on the top track.

Yeah right. It was like **** Pamplona, these nigh on half tonne adolescent bulls full of adrenaline from being chased halfway across Somerset by a couple of blokes on quad bikes were definitely going to look at me waving at them and decide to go the other way. Anyone that says get off your bike and get it between you and the irate beast – it doesn’t provide a huge amount of comfort.

I’ve actually seen a bullfight in Madrid (not proud, wouldn’t do it again) but one thing I’ll say, IDK how the matadors manage to get their balls into those tight suits of lights that they wear. Palms are still sweating now.

Back to Staines/Feltham. I don’t know if I’d have run it over but I wouldn’t have got out of the car either. And the only farms I think the police are aware of in that area are ‘urban arable’ IYKWIM, and I don’t know what use a group of stoners are for cattle wrangling.

Answered my own question – seems there must be a rapid response farmer squad. Is it just me or are policemen looking younger theses days?

mmmm roadkill burgers

Udderly ridiculous. Clearly someone has a beef with the police. They had tried everything to moove it.

Not a cow apparently, a 10 month old heifer.  Anyone know the breed, may help envisage the size.  I once used a bike to stop up two ends of a lane to hold a small herd of Ayrshires at about that age.  I had come across them on the A449 dual carriageway on the way to work, just north of Wombourne. Got them into the lane off the main road before any polis could mow them down, or too many cowphobes got triggered. Then I had to hold them before help could arrive, this not easy on your own.  As I had the bike I was able to ride down the A449 and block them off at the bottom of the parallel lane.  There was then a stand off until their owner turned up – a right grumpy sod who did not appreciate my interference.

I hope he appreciated his next insurance quote.  You don’t get stockmen on bikes in Wolverhampton. A very lucky farmer.

A white cow would have been let off with a caution.

There’s footage if you care to look for it, it’s not pretty, I can see why they suspended the cop, regardless of the rights or wrongs of it, it wasn’t ‘by the book’

They were probably on a steak out

You would think they’d have a procedure for this, but no Police hate from me until all the facts come out.

they almost certainly do, it doesn’t involve ramming it with a car – it involves an armed officer shooting it, if necessary.  Now presumably not every cop knows every procedure so the question is should someone have provided clear instructions, did he ignore clear instructions, or was there some reason the “standard” procedure was perceived as too big a time / safety risk.

Answered my own question – seems there must be a rapid response farmer squad.

those police liveried tractors and jcbs are provided by the manufacturers to promote initiatives around site/rural security.  They seem to be an interesting way of public engagement, and if only by the number of people getting angry about them spending money on tractors – it certainly results in engagement!

I don’t understand why a vet with a tranquilliser gun wasn’t called.

I’m imagining Mike from Spaced, but with a vetinary science degree.

I think the Police just wanted burgers. 🍔

I remember the fire brigade saving a bunch of piglets in a barn fire. Few months later the farmer turned up with a bunch of sausages to thank them.

I wasn’t there (we weren’t there) but having once been an AFO who was authorised to shoot animals, all I can say is its not so simple as wandering up to a rampant beast and putting a round in its head. They don’t tend to stand around waiting for you! You need to be at a safe distance with a safe backdrop. It’s very likely a 9mm wouldn’t incapacitate it. If you are very very lucky .223 may put a cow down, it may just make it even more angry and frightened. What you really need is a .308 or a rifled slug. Problem is if you miss!………This situation was in an urban / built up area. The round if it misses the cow has to stop somewhere. There isn’t the space for it to fly across fields or bury itself in a grassy hill. More than likely it’ll bury itself in a building or vehicle. Now have a consideration of the negative publicity that would occur if that were the case. Someone in a photo pointing at a bullet hole in their living room wall!! Stopping a wild beast in full flow with no fields in which to coral it isn’t easy. Perhaps giving it a couple of nudges was the only option available at the time.

Time will tell.

so the fact that the cow was recovering in the last report I saw suggests it got away lightly.

I can’t believe it’s not battered.

argeeFull Member
I believe he’s not been suspended, just given a wee calf….

👏

Or, worst case, armed response deal with it humanely. Battering it with a car seems stupid.

I’ve been hit with a car a couple of times. I’d rather that than be shot.

With all the caveats of not having all the facts and sympathy for people trying to do a difficult job… what I see here is people trying to deal with a situation from a position of total ignorance. Hamish MacBeth would have had that sorted in jig time.

Missed opportunity for the rural policing team…

Tranquilliser dart sounds so easy but like shooting a runway cow, it’s not a simple as that. Like the bullets needed to stop a running cow, the drugs used in tranquiliser darts are equally lethal. Accidentally stick yourself with some and there had better be someone at hand to administer the antidote and get you to hospital asap. Don’t really want to miss or have the cow knock it out  and have that flying off somewhere to be found by a random child.

Not many vets carry a licence both for a gun suitable and the drugs needed. Never mind the public liability insurance for operating it in a town and not out in a more controlled environment.

in time we will find out if the correct protocols were followed and who gave the orders to use a car to stop it but till then it’s pretty much just speculation.

Pretty jerky behaviour by the cow if you ask me. She was pelting hell for leather down that road. You can’t mince your words if you’re faced with that dilemma – you just have to take decisive action at the moment you filet will make the difference. The boys will be ribbing him back at the station but they can hold their tongue. In the long run, he’ll have a great oxtale to tell.

Newspaper headline – “Pig Attacks Cow”

So that’s how they make Smash Burgers.

Or, worst case, armed response deal with it humanely. Battering it with a car seems stupid.

Given the choice I think the heifer would opt for bruised ribs over being shot dead.

People aren’t familiar with farm animals these days, I’m not surprised the police behaved as they did and frankly don’t think it deserves punishment. Whilst unorthodox their methods worked and nobody got trampled.

I ride horses so I’m aware of how frightened some (a lot) of people are of them. And how some people put themselves where they really shouldn’t or make fast close passes. Keep well away from the back end of a horse you aren’t very friendly with and be wary of the front. So the police staying safe in the car and using it as a battering ram neither shocks nor surprises.