Police shoot cow

PALMER — Palmer Police shot a steer Sept. 22 after a brief flight from an area slaughterhouse, authorities said.

No one besides the steer was injured following its temporary flight from a foody fate, according to Commander Lance Ketterling of the Palmer Police Department. The steer was apparently agitated and acting aggressively after its escape, requiring police to shoot it, Ketterling said. Officials could not narrow the time down beyond a specific day.

Police caught up with the escaped cow in the area of the Midas Building, 1225 Glenn Hwy., Ketterling said.

“It’s almost like he knew the jig was up,” he said.

About a mile (as the steer flees) separates the Midas Building and the slaughterhouse.

Mt. McKinley Meat and Sausage employee Jim Crigger gave some details of the cattle’s escape.

The steer apparently escaped through a gap in a chute connecting the owner’s trailer to the side of the building. A man blocking the gap moved out the way to avoid being trampled by the steer, allowing it to escape into the slaughterhouse yard.

Because the steer had escaped before being weighed, it wasn’t officially in the slaughterhouse’s possession, though members of the Division of Agriculture staff and slaughterhouse employees helped track the animal to an area behind the Midas Building, according to Division of Agriculture director Franci Havemeister.

“From what I understand, this cow was pretty agitated,” she said. “It was looking for a break.”

A gated fence encloses the yard for just such occasions. However, the steer apparently hurdled or ran through a five-foot fence in a bid for freedom, at which point plant officials immediately called the police, concerned about nearby neighborhoods, some of which are largely residential, Crigger said. The last time cattle temporarily escaped a similar fate was in the 1990s, according to Crigger.

Because USDA regulations require federal inspectors observe all beef-producing killings, slaughterhouse workers segregated this steer’s body from the inspected killings that day and processed it after the day’s other carcasses. That allowed the errant steer to be processed without interfering with the day’s other meat processing operations, officials said.

“People were calling up, asking about the ‘Car Wash Beef,’” Crigger said.

Without USDA approval, no one will see the meat from this particular cow at a restaurant or grocery store. But USDA regulations do not prohibit the sale of the escape artist cow to an individual for personal consumption, which is what happened in this case, Havemeister said.

Because of the high levels of adrenaline present under such circumstances, the beef from the escaped cow will have to be aged slightly longer before being eaten, similar to how moose or caribou injured but not immediately killed are treated after a hunt.

Individuals confronting an at-large, unattended animal should call police immediately, Ketterling advised. Cows, particularly emotionally disturbed ones, can be unpredictable and potentially deadly. For example, a CDC study found that cattle killed 21 people between 2003 and 2008 in just four states.

Contract Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.