On the mooove: Wayward cow corralled by East Bridgewater officers after two-hour pursuit

EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — A cow broke loose from her farm on Wednesday morning, causing a stir (steer?) in the nearby community for two hours.

East Bridgewater Police say around 9 a.m., Officer Robert Lang saw a woman on a horse chasing after a loose cow in the area of Belmont and Summer Street.

The owner previously called the police to notify them her cow, Boots, had escaped from her farm on Summer Street.

East Bridgewater Police Deputy Chief Mike McLaughlin, Sgt. John Smith and Officers Joshua DeJesus, Matthew Monteiro, and Patrick O’Brien responded to the scene.

Officer Monteiro, who grew up in the area, actually had experience catching a couple of runaway bulls when he was an officer in West Bridgewater. Still, that was his only familiarity with farm animals.

“I was calling Boots like a dog,” he said. “She charged after me and I jumped out of the way. She’s a thousand pounds and did not want to come back. This cow had a mission. She just didn’t want to go back home.”

Video shows Officer Monteiro doing his best cowboy impression, trying to lasso the bovine.

On the mooove: Wayward cow corralled by East Bridgewater officers (East Bridgewater Police Department)

After a couple of hours on the lam, Boots was tired — along with everyone else. One of those helping with the rescue pulled out a feed bucket and that’s when Monteiro, with the help of others, roped Boots.

But the ordeal was far from over. Boots REALLY didn’t want to go back home.

Cindy Scott, a local farmer, helped with Phase Two.

“So I turned around and put my hand up the nose and grabbed the tail,” she said. “I tried to walk it out, coax her up a little more. They pulled the ropes, we moved it up a little bit more until we could finally get out of there.”

After some more tracking and coaxing the animal, Boots was finally lassoed and guided into a trailer where authorities say she was safely returned to the farm.

“I am happy to report that our officers were able to help safely capture the cow without injury to themselves or the animal,” Chief Michael Jenkins said.

During the cow’s escape, there were minor disruptions to traffic on Belmont and Summer Streets, and minor damage was caused to some surrounding lawns.

“I’ve worked in farming communities before. These types of calls we try to help in any way we can,” Monteiro said. “Most of us are animal lovers, so we want to make sure the safe outcome of the cow is the goal, right?”

By the end, Boots was back to accepting petting from her human handlers. And she accepted an apple.

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