Police and animal control officers were attempting to capture loose livestock in northeast Edmonton early Wednesday morning – but one of the two bovine fugitives held off officers for much of the day.
Authorities were called to the area near the Belvedere LRT Station at about 7:00 a.m. after two bovines were reported to be on the loose in the area.
Officials managed to corral one of them, a steer, near 54 Street and 127 Avenue before 9:00 a.m.
The other animal, a large bull was contained in an area a few blocks away – and nearly twelve hours later, the livestock had still not been caught.
CTV News learned officials were having a hard time getting into the fenced-in lot with a trailer around midday.
A number of police officers, Fish and Wildlife officials, even the EPS Tactical Unit was called in to deal with the situation throughout the day.
Over the course of the day, officers tried a few different strategies to round up the animal, including trying to corral it using snowmobiles, but that attempt appeared to have been cut short after the animal apparently charged at them.
Late Wednesday afternoon, after the situation had become the butt of a number of jokes, a cowboy finally arrived on the scene.
After 5:00 p.m., the bull was finally tranquilized and eventually taken away.
Both animals had escaped from Edmonton Custom Packers, after a gate was reportedly left open.
It wasn’t immediately clear why it took authorities so long to use tranquilizer to get the upper hand.
With files from Brenna Rose
