43 Shots Into Wayward Cow Being Investigated

City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. is investigating why police officers fired 43 shots at a wayward cow that had entered the San Diego Freeway on Sunday morning.

“It seems unusual. I haven’t been able to justify 43 shots yet,” Brady said Wednesday. “I’m still trying to understand why it took more shots than just eight or 10. I just don’t know that right now.”

The investigation of the Irvine Police Department is expected to be completed this week.

Police officers said 43 shots were necessary to kill the cow, which they said was “excitable” and endangered drivers on the freeway.

But some animal rights activists questioned whether the police actions were excessive.

“It sounds more like target practice to me,” said Ava Parks, founder of Orange County People for Animals.

The incident occurred about 2 a.m. Sunday when the cow roamed from a ranch near Turtle Rock to the northbound side of the San Diego Freeway near Sand Canyon Avenue.

California Highway Patrol officers blocked northbound traffic and Irvine police tried to maneuver the cow off the freeway with their patrol cars, Brady said.

That effort failed, and the bovine began moving toward southbound traffic, Brady said.

At that point, two officers fired 41 bullets from their .45-caliber semiautomatic handguns at the cow, Brady said. The officers only fired from certain angles so that if the shots missed, they would lodge in a dirt embankment and not hit any cars or homes, he said.

Eventually, the cow dropped to the ground but continued to move. So officers fired two more shots into its head.

“Basically, they were shooting at a moving target that was jolting back and forth in many different directions. . . . It was very excitable and moving at a very high rate of speed for a cow,” Brady said. “They couldn’t get close enough to put a slug in its head.”

Police got permission to shoot the cow from the ranch and the Irvine Co., which owns the grazing land, Brady said.

Still, some animal rights activists wondered if police couldn’t have found a more humane way of subduing the cow, such as using a tranquilizer gun.

“Forty-three shots sounds excessive,” Parks said. “It might not completely be (the Police Department’s) fault, but it looks bad.”