UK minister demands explanation after police ram runaway cow with squad car
- The calf has a large cut on its leg after officers, who had been chasing it for hours, drove into it, then hit it again after it got up
Britain’s interior minister on Saturday demanded an “urgent explanation” after police officers were filmed ramming a runaway cow with their car.
The Surrey Police force said it had referred itself to the police ethics watchdog over the incident.
The force said officers responded on Friday evening to reports of a loose cow “running at members of the public” in Staines-upon-Thames, just outside London. and damaging a car.
It said officers spent several hours trying to catch the animal, and eventually “a decision was made to stop it using a police car”.
Footage published on social media showed a cow running in a residential road being hit by a police car, getting up, and then being hit again.
The cow sustained a large cut to its leg and was being treated by a vet, police said.