Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men July 5 after they were found dragging or pulling a very reticent live cow with their car. Or more precisely, a bull.
The two men described the bull as “stubborn” and said he didn’t want to be moved to a new pasture.
The Sheriff Office received several 9-1-1 calls about 4:30 PM from citizens reporting a 1989 Buick Century was “dragging a cow with a rope” in the 4200 block of South Star Lake Road, unincorporated King County near Auburn.
Deputies found the car and with the rope around the cow’s neck and attached to the “B” pillar of the car. The bovine was lying in the roadway on his stomach, with all four legs splayed outward. There were open bleeding wounds around the hooves and legs.
The deputies talked with a witness who said the car was pulling the bull down the roadway with the rope cinched up around its neck in a slipknot. He said the bull was obviously in distress, strongly resisting as it was pulled down the street causing hoof and leg injuries, until it collapsed where deputies found it.
The driver, age 75, and the passenger, age 57, said they were moving the cow to a nearby pasture, and said this is how they always move the cow because “he is stubborn.” The passenger went on to say the cow wasn’t hurt and “you have to be like that with cows”.
The cow stood up, obviously in pain, according to the King County Sheriff’s Department, and was moved carefully off the roadway to a grassy shoulder.
Based on statement from the men and drag marks on the pavement, deputies estimate the cow was pulled along for about a half mile.
Deputies found bloody streaks on the asphalt where the bull was pulling back on the rope. One of the streaks was about 20 feet long
The cow was turned over to the Washington State Animal Response Team for safekeeping. They brought a trailer and administered medicine to relieve the animal’s pain.
Both men were booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Animal Cruelty 1st Degree.
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