Loose 'Bull' In Howell Creates Udderly Ridiculous Task For Police

HOWELL, NJ — When Howell Township Patrolman John Louhier set out on his rounds Thursday morning following Wednesday night's nor'easter he expected he would be dealing with downed power lines or tree limbs, brought down by the foot of snow that fell.

He didn't expect to have to summon his inner cowboy, however.

Imagine his surprise when Louhier was dispatched to Oak Glen Road on a report that a "bull" was on the loose. A motorist called Howell police to report the animal meandering along Oak Glen Road shortly after 7 a.m.

So Louhier headed that direction. A neighbor who had seen the animal in the road as well also called in, and told police where to find it and where it belonged, he said.

"There are people on that street who have livestock," Louhier said. He drove a bit further and sure enough, there was the roughly 500-pound bull, just standing around. It wasn't really bothering anyone, he said, but by the same token, they couldn't just leave it standing there.

"Oak Glen gets a lot of traffic," he said, "so we had to get it out of there." Though the bovine seemed docile enough, Louhier and Lt. Joe Markulic, who was assisting, couldn't take the chance that it would get annoyed and rush a motorist or that it would get hit by a vehicle. "A 500-pound animal can do a lot of damage" to any vehicle, he said. They contacted had owner of the animal but they needed to get it out of the road.

"Traffic was starting to pick up by now," Louhier said. "And she wasn't budging."

You read that correctly: Turned out the "he" was actually a "she" — the cow was of a breed where both males and females grow horns, Louhier learned. She had gotten out when the heavy snow collapsed part of the fence around the property.

Neighbors came out to help, because as it turned out, the people who live at the property where the cow is from don't actually own the animals, Louhier said.

"They (the neighbors) brought food in buckets, but she wouldn't eat it," he said. "And we tried to lasso her," using a rope Louhier had in his emergency bag. But the cow wasn't having it.

"Every time we tried to get near her she'd give us a look," Louhier said. "It wasn't mean or anything. It's just big and has horns. You have to be careful."

Finally they were able to entice the cow to eat out of a bucket that Markulic had slipped a lasso around and Louhier pulled it up around her neck.

"I got dragged down the street a little bit," he said with a chuckle.

The cow-roping efforts, which took about an hour, created a bit of a spectacle and prompted all kinds of comments from passing motorists.

"I knew all those Howellbama statements were true," one motorist yelled, Louhier said. "We kind of lucked out because there was no school, the traffic was lighter."

In the end, it didn't take a rope or even a cattle prod to get her out of the road: the caretakers of the farm had arrived, and came out with a bucket of the cow's regular food.

"She just followed the food right back to her home," Louhier said. "It was definitely an entertaining way to start the day.

And as the officer who posted the incident to Facebook said it best, that's no bull?$&@!

Photos by Howell Township Police Department