Gang of fourteen

Cows have gone rogue in Prince Edward County. It was bound to happen. When you’ve spent your career snorting, chasing clowns, and flinging young men off your back, a few rolling acres of grass just won’t cut it anymore. Once you’ve felt the warm glow of a raucous crowd cheering your every kick and pivot, it’s hard to go back to the pasture.

Fourteen rodeo cows busted loose a few months ago from their farm in Sophiasburgh (I am using the generic term cows here, even as it is reported there are some bulls in the mix). The animals have been marauding and vandalizing the countryside ever since. They are big, brawny, long of horn, and foul of temperament. Now, with a taste of the wild life, they have no intention of going back.

The owner, until perhaps very recently, has seemed disinterested in repatriating his animals— or in their fate. Attempts to corral them have fizzled. ‘Too skittish’ ‘Too feral.’ The opportunity to lure the animals with food seems to have passed. Sweet-tasting grass is poking up through the matted carpet of autumn detritus. There is plenty of water about.

It’s Shire Hall’s problem now. Among the many and varied responsibilities of a municipality that spends $75 million a year and manages assets of a billion dollars is that it must now hire a specialized bounty hunter to stalk and apprehend 14 rogue cattle and impound them.

A succession of farmland owners and representatives from the Prince Edward Cattlemen’s Association (PECA) and Prince Edward Federation of Agriculture (PEFA) came to council last week. They described the damage the animals were causing, the various risks they posed, and the duty of the municipality to fix it.

While some presenters reported being unable to get within a thousand feet of the beasts, others spoke of unruly bovines 20 feet from their back deck—discouraged only by the clanging of pots and pans. Some, it seems, were finding shelter in a nearby implement shed.

PEFA rep John Thompson described the damage to crops and feedstock as well as the risk of a collision with a vehicle, particularly at night. He said the situation has been out of control for too long and that it is the Municipality’s responsibility under the Pounds Act to capture these animals and end the threat they pose.

Prince Edward Cattlemen’s Association president Lynn Leavitt told Council the problem “wasn’t going to fix itself.” He added that he believes the rogue 14 includes at least five heifers and some bulls—that it won’t be long before they figure out what goes where, and soon there will be a new generation of rogue cows that have only known freedom.

The Pounds Act is an old bit of law that traces its origins back to the Middle Ages. The current Ontario law states that “no cattle, goat, horse, sheep or swine shall be allowed to run at large in an organized municipality.”

To do this, a poundkeeper is contracted to provide a safe place to impound and care for the animals—either at their facility or where they are captured. Think of it as a jail for livestock. But the poundkeeper, or poundmaster, may also be empowered to capture animals on the lam. This is what PECA and PEFA want the municipality to do— contract with a professional cattle wrangler to capture these animals, negotiate the terms of their return to the owner, or sell them to recover their costs.

The Pounds Act is so archaic in its origins that many of the terms will be unfamiliar to most readers. Distrain in the Act means to capture or seize. Replevin is a term used to convey the delivery of goods captured—in this sense, in exchange for compensation.

But perhaps we have all been looking at this the wrong way. Might there be a marketing opportunity in this? Soon it will be pick-your-own-berries season. Consider perhaps a catch-your-own-beef weekend. We could conduct a lottery. Or an auction—offer folks the opportunity to bid on the right to hunt Ferdinand. It could put a fresh spin on Taste the County.

Does this beef taste rogue to you?

rick@wellingtontimes.ca