Posted on 12/28/2021 10:14:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
A California Highway Patrol officer “escaped relatively unscathed” after an apparently angry cow tried to toss him into the air in a rural part of the state, officials said.
The scary moments were captured by the officer’s dash camera. CHP’s Susanville division uploaded the video to its Facebook page two days before Christmas.
“Holy cow!!” the agency captioned the Dec. 23 post, noting the footage highlights “one of the many dangers we face on a daily basis here in rural northeastern California.”
The grainy 12-second-clip begins with the cow charging at Officer Brandon Pratt, who is standing on the side of a highway. The bovine — described as a “meat locomotive” — started chasing the officer after apparently becoming fed up with his orders, according to the post.
Pratt is then seen running past his patrol vehicle onto the road and out of sight of the camera for a few moments. Seconds later, he appears back in the frame near the side of the road again. At that point, the cow is no longer following him and the officer blows out a breath in relief.
What the camera didn’t catch: the moment Pratt was apparently lifted off his feet and dealt a “glancing blow” around his right shoulder by the approximately 1-ton cow, CHP spokesperson Bruce Thuelchassaigne told the Los Angeles Times.
Pratt didn’t receive any major injuries from the frightening encounter, according to CHP officials. Colleagues told the Times it may have been because he was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time.
It’s not uncommon for officers to be dispatched to calls regarding animals escaping their enclosures near rural roads and posing a threat to passing motorists, according to the CHP Susanville division, which handles Lassen County.
“Most times, the cows behave and go back through the fence, but every once in a while, you get one that has attitude,” Thuelchassaigne told the paper.
That’s not to say other parts of the state don’t deal with bovine-related issues.
Earlier this year, a ‘good Samaritan cowboy’ helped CHP officers lasso a bull that caused traffic on the 15 Freeway in Rancho Cucamonga, while in 2018, a runaway cow led officers on a slow-speed “pursuit” in the Bishop area of the Eastern Sierra.
And in a more unusual incident: around 30 cows were rounded up in a Pico Rivera neighborhood after escaping a nearby slaughterhouse back in June. One of the animals was fatally shot by a deputy after charging a family of four and knocking some of them down, authorities said.
There are two types of cows. SMC’s=slow mean cows. Next FMC’s= fast mean cows. One takes their time stomping you, the other is in a hurry to stomp you. Courtesy of Mr Patrick McManus.
I once faced down a huge Black Angus bull on a mountainside while prospecting in SE Idaho. When I lived in Alaska I was charged once by a black bear and once by a brown bear. That bull was scarier than either of those bruins!
The happy ending was when he turned away from me and let fly a forceful stream of bullshiite but that was OK with me - I’d rather be shat upon than stomped!
🙂. One takes a shower to cure the other a body cast. I’m with you.
I’ve never been threatened by a cow yet.
The closest I did come to get stomped was about 15 feet away from a bison at Elk Island Park.
I came around the bend and there he was. Fortunately, he wandered off deeper into the marsh so nothing happened to me that day.
What was Stacy Abrams doing in Northern California?
If this had been a Pit Bull charging the officer, or even only a Labrador Retriever, I'm sure he wouldn't have hesitated to blast the poor animal.
But a cow deserves more consideration?
Regards,
Was he a “Cow-Chips Officer”?
let’s go brandon...
NorCal is a big land mass. What city or county?
That’s a hippo.
1 ton? Not.
Fair warning to any FReepers going through this area. Susanville IS NOT a sought after billet for the CHP. It tends to attract a lower tier of officer(s). BTW Death Valley is the bottom rung of CHP billets.
We all know what would happened if this was a dog.
I love Patrick McManus’s books. The Grasshopper trap was great.
Dibs on the ribs!
That’s what he gets for trying to wrestle a cow (a little Great Plains lingo there).
I worked for a packing house and one morning we came in and a dozen or so cows had gotten out into the residential area by the packing plant. We were able to get most of them back by herding them back to the pens.
We had one who just wouldn’t go so the humane society darted her. She eventually laid down by a 3’ mound in a parking lot. One of the police officers went to put a rope around her neck and the humane society guy told him to let her alone for a little more time but he went towards her anyway.
That rope touched her head and she jumped over the mound like it was nothing. They let her settle down again and roped her after the humane society guy said it was ok and they winched her into a cart.
What was interesting was she had to be quarantined for a week or so due to the nicotine in the tranquilizer dart.
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