Shocking video has captured the moment a British policeman repeatedly rammed his patrol car into an escaped 10-month-old calf, ripping him from his frontline duties.
Footage shows the escaped animal, named Boo Lucy, being hit by a speeding cop car in Surrey Friday, with one witness shouting: “Wow! What is that!” From a house up the street.
The calf was thrown several feet forward onto the road before the police car struck it a second time, apparently trying to stop the animal in its tracks.
Witness Kay Bennett, 22, said he saw the animal get hit by the car five times.
“A large police 4×4 showed up and hit the cow at about 30 miles per hour. I went ballistic. The cow didn’t hurt anyone. They did it again, and this time they moved forward so that the car was pinning him by the neck. “It was disgusting,” Bennett said. Times of London.
Bennett said neighbors were screaming in terror as the accident occurred, and many thought the animal was dead.
The police car was pushed into the calf several times before the animal was eventually coaxed into a horse box by three men.
The calf’s owner, Rob, said he had no idea how she escaped, and only learned of her disappearance after watching horrific footage of her capture on social media.
“She had actually escaped with another cow and they had split up. We had no idea until we got a call about the other cow. When we went to get her on Saturday morning, people there asked us if we knew about this other escaped animal. That’s when we saw the social media “It was horrific to watch.”
He described the footage as “extremely disturbing.”
“I think it was a case of the urban police not knowing how to handle the situation. I can understand that they thought she might pose a danger to others, but all it takes is a tranquilizer dart.”
Beau Lucy is now recovering in the barn. She did not suffer any broken bones, but it was not immediately clear whether she was bleeding internally.
Rob’s partner told the newspaper that the policeman should be fired and suggested that Beau Lucy might die from shock after the traumatic incident.
Surrey Police said the decision was made to use a police vehicle to stop the animal after officers “tried a number of options to safely capture the cow” and were “deeply concerned about the safety of the public”.
Police added that the officer driving the squad car “has been removed from his front-line duties” pending the outcome of the investigation. Their identity has not been revealed.
Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp said: “In addition to our primary duty of protecting the public, the welfare of animals is important to us, and we know people want answers about how this happened and what led to it.”
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