Two men were injured by a herd of cows wandering throughout Pico Rivera yesterday evening with a sheriff’s deputy also shooting and killing one of the animals
Staff
At approximately 7:36 PM, on Tuesday June 22, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. (LASD), Pico Rivera Station received a call of approximately 30 cows running loose on the city streets.
The cows had escaped a meat packing facility when a gate was accidentally left open, running eastbound toward vehicles on Beverly Boulevard near Durfee Avenue, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Tracy Koerner, spokesman for the department.
An hour later, the cows were still loose and managed to make their way to a residential neighborhood over a mile away from the facility.
As the cows stampeded, the herd struck and injured one man near Paramount Boulevard and Calico Avenue at 8:32 p.m., said County Fire Dispatch Supervisor Michael Pitman. Paramedics transported the man to a trauma center.
A little more than an hour later, around 9:50 p.m. the storming cows injured a second man in the 9300 block of Olympic Boulevard, Pitman said.
To protect the family from further injury, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the animal, the department said in a statement.
The LASD Mounted Enforcement Detail was deployed to assist in the recapture and transportation of the animals. It was later learned that a total of forty cows had escaped.
Of the forty, thirty-eight were safely captured, one was shot, and one has not been located.
Broadcasts showed the cows evading deputies who tried to contain the beasts.
There were no other injuries reported.