Boston Police are searching for a loose bull in Roslindale. Authorities first got the reports of the rogue animal more than a week ago, but the city’s animal control still hasn’t found it.
GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath spoke with Craig LeMoult for the latest on this story. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: So, Craig, how did this all start?
Craig LeMoult: Well, on Saturday, June 22nd, Boston police got a very unusual call. I got the police scanner tape of that moment. Here’s a little of it.
[playback of police scanner]
Unidentified voice 1: Yeah, I just had a call in to the police about a bull on American Legion Highway by the Walgreens. There’s family of five chasing the bull.
Unidentified voice 2: What do you got out there? A bull you said?
Unidentified voice 1: A cow, a bull. They said a bull — a baby bull, or something.
[playback ends]
LeMoult: It’s a little hard to hear there, but the report was: A bull was in the parking lot of Walgreens on American Legion Highway and was being chased by a family of five with a U-Haul. They later said they believe the bull had been hit by the U-Haul.
Rath: Do we have a sense of the size of it?
LeMoult: Yeah, it was mentioned in the police scanner tape a little bit later on, after animal control officers showed up.
[playback of police scanner tape]
Unidentified voice: Animal control said he got eyes on it and it’s a pretty good sized bull.
[playback ends]
LeMoult: The police tape says the bull ran off into the woods and wasn’t found. I looked around back there, actually. It’s a surprisingly large wooded area there.
After that, there were several sightings of the animal, including just walking down Hyde Park Avenue.
Rath: So there’s a missing bull. Do we know where it came from? Has anybody reported a missing bull?
LeMoult: The city’s animal care and control office has refused to make anybody available for an interview about that — but in an emailed statement, they said, “The bull escaped from a resident who was unaware that farm animals, with the exception of permitted chickens, are not allowed within the city of Boston.”
They told me no citations have been issued, making it a little harder to track down this bull-owning resident. And it’s not clear whether that family of five with the U-Haul that was chasing the bull is responsible somehow. I’d say that’s a definite possibility.
Rath: Craig, this was over a week ago and they still have not found the bull?
LeMoult: Yeah, right. The animal control spokesperson said in that statement that, despite multiple searches over the last several days — including the use of a thermal drone — they have not been able to locate the bull. While it does seem a bit crazy that a bull could evade capture for that long, I talked today with Bob Skalbite, he’s the farms manager for the UMass Center for Agriculture, and he said cows can be sneaky:
Bob Skalbite: Think of how often there is hunters in the woods and they don’t see a moose until it’s right on top of them, right? So it’s another very large animal. Bears, same thing. If they can find a spot with cover and they lay down, it’s quite possible that you wouldn’t see it.
LeMoult: He pointed out that if it was hit by that U-Haul, there’s a chance it could have succumbed to injuries and its body just hasn’t been found.
Rath: So what should you do if you see the bull?
LeMoult: Well, Bob Skalbite said give it space for sure. Definitely don’t try to approach it. Don’t scare it off. Just leave the thing alone.
And the city’s animal control office is asking anybody who finds the bull, or anybody who sees it, to call 311.
