A Montana man suffered broken bones and sore ribs after being pummeled by a 1,200-pound black Angus cow that ran amok through downtown Billings on Tuesday, the Billings Gazette reported.
Morgan Logan, 52, was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon, a day after the cow ran through Billings for nearly two hours before being shot by police.
I’ve been around livestock my whole life, so at first sight I thought it was pretty funny seeing cops chase a cow down the street,” Logan told the newspaper. “But she was like a bull at a rodeo.”
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Logan had been driving a gravel truck at the construction site where he works when he spotted police going after the animal and decided to help.
The cow escaped from the Public Auction Yards around 3 p.m. during unloading before going on a two-hour trek through the city's downtown.
The paper reported the cow knocked over a cyclist, charged at pedestrians and nearly jumped over a police vehicle.
“It’s not like we are out in the pasture,” Lt. Kevin Iffland with the Billings Police Department said Wednesday. “This was a totally different scenario of asphalt and a lot of traffic. We are not equipped to wrangle large animals in a city environment.”
Logan said the cow charged at him "like a bull at a rodeo" from under a tree knocking him into the air.
“I couldn’t believe how fast she came out from under the tree,” Logan said. “I guess I saw her too late because the next thing I knew I was in the air. I had no fence to climb — she caught me right in the open.”
Police requested assistance from the state fish and wildlife parks office and the auction yard where the cow had escaped from.
Bob Gibson, communication and education program manager for Fish and Wildlife Parks, said they were unable to respond to the incident because the agency wouldn’t have been able to act fast enough.
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“It’s not like we just go to the cupboard and pull out a dart gun and shoot,” Gibson said. “There are different drugs, concentrations and quantities that are all considerations when darting animals. Wardens do a lot of studying and environmental assessment ahead of time when tranquilizing an animal.
Eventually a police marksman was called and shot the cow through the heart, ending the the rampage. The cow was taken to a city landfill.
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So Sad.
"Cows Gone Wild." If these previously domesticated animals turn to violence, meat prices will go up and consumers will be on the horns of a dilemma. You'd better hoof it on down to Safeway and stock up. This could udderly devastate the meat industry. This will be fodder for PETA. And congratulations to Mr. Logan, who was only grazed.
It should be; The cow was taken to a Bar-B-Que.
Yep, damn, I thought the article was about politicians running amock in Montana. It's like expecting bbq beef ribs, and getting chicken ribs.
LOL- Very Good Denver!
denver- i believe you should submit that as the new headline for this article
Utterly uddered!
*facepalm*
I live in Montana. This kind of think happens more than I'd like to admit.
I can't believe this isn't getting more coverage. Typical conservative media.
? NBC conservative? Ok.
City landfill? With meat prices already high enough why could they not butcher the cow at least and give the processed meat to the local food pantry?
Seriously! They would have made good use of it, but a landfill, come on.
I think it is illegal to enjoy a cow used in the commission of a crime. Even if the cow commits the crime. By the way NBC it is Black Angus not black Angus.
When cows are outlawed only outlaws will have cows...............
it was definitely a mad cow... but who knows if it was a 'mad cow'.. better safe than sorry i suppose.
Moooooooooove!!!
that was probably one of the last grass fed cows in this country, what a shame the cow was discarded to a landfill, and vegetarians please, if God had not wanted us to eat meat he would have never made such delicious animals so easy to catch.
i would also like to point to exhibit B... -->my pointy teeth.
She must have had mad cow disease!
First rule of thumb working with livestock: one with 2 legs can not out run one with 4 legs. This was 1 ticked off cow. I would had liked to see a picture, I wonder if it was a bull or steer. At least she got a quick death with a gallant attempt at escape first. I wonder if her behavior was that aggressive at the farm? Maybe that is how she ended up at the first place. When we had mean cows they saw the inside of the livestock trailer before they could twitch their tails. We had one cow that jumped over the full hood of a large tractor, without leaving a scratch on it. If it hadn't been for our herd dog, I don't know how we would of ever got her loaded in the trailer.
Dropped in the landfill.....What a waste of perfectly good MT Angus beef....
Holy Kow! WTF is happening in Montana. This is udder nonsense - dumping a lot of good beef in a landfill. Just does not make sense when there are lot of people starving in this world.
It looks as if the "Running Of The Cows" craze is spreading across the U.S. First South Park, now Billings?
Why the hell not? This didn't happen in New York City or Los Angeles, this happened in Montana, the middle of cow country. For the authorities there not to be both PREPARED and TRAINED for this kind of thing, and to immediately resort to "look, there's an animal, better shoot it!" speaks to how stupid and incompetent they must be.
Please don't be ignorant. This sort of thing rarely happens here. Cows are kept in pasture, not in cities. They called in a trained marksman who did an excellent job taking the thing down in Montana's most populated city before it hurt or killed anyone else.
It wasn't eaten because it was going to auction to be sold as a breeding cow, not the eating kind. They're raised completely different. Probably wouldn't have tasted as good, but I was surprised by the landfill thing as well.
Sorry, breeding cows and “eating” cows: there is no difference. I raised cows for years. The only difference is that you don’t eat the “breeding” cow, you breed her. And BTW, since in was Montana, they should know better than to chase after a cow! You need to get behind and ‘herd’ cows, not chase them. Sounds like a bunch of really , excuse me, but really, STUPID cattle illiterate people out there chasing cows. Of course it would run! Ever watched a herding dog work? Well, that is how humans herd cattle, too. You don’t chase them!!!!! I agree with everyone ele: the meat should not have been wasted in the landfill. Bunch of idiots in Montana, I’d say. Sorry, Montana.
“It’s not like we just go to the cupboard and pull out a dart gun and shoot,”
.....so.... instead of whipping together a potentially lethal dose of 'less that lethal' ammunition... ya just shoot the damn thing in the heart...
am i the only one seeing the irony here?
Wow, so since they chose to euthanize the animal the quickest way possible after it had injured someone they are stupid and incompetent. Perhaps if you had put on your cape you could've saved the day and that poor misunderstood cow. I bet these officers just missed the weekly trainup on how to properly handle escaped livestock
Police and media were involved so everything had to be done legally.
There is a federal law under the US Dept. of Ag. that states animals to be slaughtered must be able to walk into the place of slaughter under their own power. This is probably why it went to a landfill.
I agree with everyone though, a shameful waste of good meat, Black Angus no less!
OK. So, you don’t think that running amok in a city is “being able to walk into the place of slaughter”?
Or did you mean after it is shot?
Really? Do you remember that famous picture of the cow that could not stand up and walk that was being tazered by some Mexican working at a slaughter house trying to get it in so it could be killed? It has been a poster now for years because of the way it was treated. That cow, which was sick, ended up on someone's table. And you think they have to be able to walk. They just closed one down in CA, I believe.
How is this national news? what should we do? Maybe Congress will make a law banning cows.
After all, they do fart, and the methane and putricene are causing "global warming" :D
Do you mean that with all those superstar cowboys in Montana, there was nobody around who could rope it and lead it away?
This should have been a town barbeque not sent to the landfill, I am sure there were plenty of people around that could have readily prepped him for the smoker :)
City Slickers!Black Angus! Mmmmmm! They Didn't Know How to Catch Her! DUMMIES!
This is really sad. It sounds like the cow sensed what was coming and was running for its life. The Fish and Wildlife Svs just sat on their butts!! They could have responded--they just decided not to. They sure had a bunch of excuses though why they didn't. A tranquilizer gun would have done the trick. They said by the time they got there it would be too late???? How do they know? That was BS on their part. I guess they needed a good old fashioned cowboy to come down and rope it. It is really sad, and maybe unnecessary, the police had to shoot it. I hear of too many times cops shooting animals (pets) unnecessarily. There might have been another way. A local vet might have been able to give them a tranquilizer mix since F&WL just decided not to do their job. Such a loss of life.
Those Montanans, Crocodile Dundees of the Rockies, sure know how to start a barbecue on the spur of a moment and turn it into a block party. Next time tell the cow they are invited for chicken and pork not beef, they won't get so worried and run down people on the way to it.
If you haven't been around an angry cow, you are showing your ignorance. A 1,200 pound cow is 1,200 pounds of determination and you are not going to stop it by standing there and waving your arms. If you think it's sad, think about that the next time you have a burger, or a slab of spar ribs, or a nice steak. Sad? Yeah, right. Dang vegetarians, anyway.
While I agree that the first choice would be catching the cow alive, tranquilizer guns and darts are actually fairly dangerous to people and much less effective when an animal is already stressed and excited. A single drop of carfentanil in the doseages that would be used to sedate a 1,200 lb animal can kill a human. Not the go to choice for an urban environment. In that situation, a well-trained marksman is the safer choice. Even if the animal could not be labeled as fit for human consumption due to regulations, surely the local humane society could have made good use of it. Dumping her in a landfill just seems a waste.
We had a good friend in Billings some years back, and had a chance to visit. A bit of culture shock, but nice people ... beautiful town. The airport is up on a butte overlooking the town ... gorgeous.
That said, I can easily believe this happening here.
Of course, we now live in Dallas, and could as easily imagine this happening in any of a number of small towns nearby.
Who cares dorkith.
California cows are the happiest cows and would not mis-behave like this.
Is that because you are standing on a bucket behind them?
Mr. Mahooty -
You are delving beyond test depth in crudeness. Rise! Rise!