By Canadian Press

Runaway cow returns to barn after nearly a week on the loose in N.B.

Oct 29, 2016 | 10:15 AM

RUSAGONIS, N.B. — A wayward cow is back in the barn after almost a week on the run in New Brunswick.

Beef farmer Wayne Morgan says he was corralling his cattle from a pasture area on Oromocto Island, about 20 kilometres southeast of Fredericton, when the tan-coloured cow swam off from the herd into the Saint John River.

“We turned her back (around) the first time with a motor boat, so we thought we had her,” Morgan says. “Before we could get the gate closed … she decided to swim and that time she made it across.”

Morgan says the roughly 600-kilogram animal paddled to an island in the Lincoln area, where she roamed until Friday morning when she was caught and driven back to her stable in Rusagonis.

Morgan says he and his family tried a variety techniques to wrangle the cow. They brought her calf to the island in the hope that her maternal instincts would kick upon hearing the calf crying. When that didn’t work, the family tried to imitate calf calls to no avail.

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The farmer says he brought the cow bovine treats every day, luring her closer and closer, until she walked into a device called a headgate, which locked her head in so she couldn’t escape.

“She had to catch herself and she did a good job of it,” he says. “She just thought she was the boss there for a while and now things have kind of come my way.” 

Morgan says the cow has settled back into the barn quite nicely, and even after her fugitive stint, he has no plans to get rid of her.

“I don’t want everybody thinking that she’s some wild hyena … She’s a sweet little cow,” he says. “She just won’t be going to the island. She’ll remember now that she can swim that river and you just couldn’t trust her.”

The Canadian Press