Residents in a quiet California neighborhood caught an udderly wild sight when roughly three dozen cows stampeded past their homes after escaping from a slaughterhouse.
At least 34 cows somehow managed to break free from a Manning Beef Company facility on Tuesday evening before making their way through the streets of Pico Rivera.
Video posted to social media shows the cows appearing to follow traffic laws and trotting on the right side of the street, before ducking into someone’s backyard.
Residents were also filmed trying to herd one of the cows, which started bucking and knocked one man to the ground.
The herd eventually lost steam and began grazing on people’s lawns in a cul-de-sac, where local law enforcement tried to wrangle them before the group split up and tried to flee again.
Video posted to social media shows the moment three dozen cows made their way down a residential Pico Rivera street on Tuesday night after they broke free from a slaughterhouse
At one point in the video, the cows decide to turn into somebody’s backyard
A man is seen filming the cows as they made their way through a backyard
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said that at about 7.35pm they started to receive reports of about 20 cows making their way through Pico Rivera, about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
About an hour later, the sheriff’s department warned people to avoid the area, saying they were police activity in the neighborhood as several cows became loose.
The LA County Sheriff’s Department said the cows were running around the streets, before settling into a cul-de-sac surrounded by deputies at around 9pm.
Footage of the encounter showed the cows calmly munching on people’s front lawns in the neighborhood.
Deputy Tracy Kroener said the deputies were trying to keep the cows together in the cul-de-sac late Tuesday night while waiting for the department’s mounted enforcement detail to arrive with horse trailers, and by 10pm, most of the cows had been loaded onto two trailers.
Several, though, managed to elude authorities and continue their voyage through the suburbs, with Kroener noting to the Los Angeles Times late Tuesday night, ‘There’s still a few out and about.’
The cows reportedly escaped from a nearby slaughterhouse
Residents tried to wrangle one of the cows, causing it to buck and knock a man to the ground
At around 8.45pm, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department warned people to avoid the area
At one point, Kroener said, the cows began to charge, and one was fatally shot by law enforcement.
Kroener told the LA Times he did not know what or whom the creature was charging at, but FOX 11 reported that the cow appeared to be running towards a child when it was shot and killed.
Another was reported injured after being hit by a car, and one resident was taken to a local trauma center for injuries sustained in the stampede.
It is unclear whether that is the same man who was filmed falling to the ground while trying to herd a cow who started bucking.
It also remains unclear how the cows escaped, and where they would be brought after being caught.
‘They were just going all over the place,’ one resident told FOX 11.
At one point, the herd split up and tried to flee from the authorities
Some managed to elude authorities well into Tuesday night, with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Tracy Kroener telling the Los Angeles Times that some were still on the loose after they wrangled some into two trailers
By Wednesday morning, ‘Pico Rivera’ was trending on Twitter, with many people sharing their thoughts on the cows’ great escape.
One user, Buddybud, said they were rooting for the cows, and Razor Ramone joked that Chick-Fil-A was filming a commercial in the area. The fast food company uses cows asking people to eat more chicken as its mascot.
Sheba Turk, a morning news anchor in New Orleans wrote, ‘This story had me feeling so bad about that burger I ate this week.’
‘If they made it that far, let them go! They deserve their freedom,’ she continued.
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Jocelyn also said she felt bad for the cows, who seemed to just want to be free.
‘I am legit crying,’ she wrote. ‘Those animals escaped on their own because they wanted to live. This world is cruel.’
By Wednesday morning, ‘Pico Rivera’ was trending on Twitter, with many people sharing their thoughts on the cows’ great escape and the deputies’ subsequent chase of the creatures
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