TORONTO — It seemed like a playful diversion from the daily routines of a group of suburban Toronto residents, but the smiles faded quickly when as many
as 15 police gunshots felled an escaped steer that had begun to threaten its would-be captors.
An Ontario Provincial Police officer shot and killed the animal as it charged at him on a quiet residential street east of Dixie Road and the Queen Elizabeth Way yesterday
morning. The steer was one of four cattle that, several hours earlier, suddenly found themselves on the loose when a stock trailer attached to a pickup truck tipped
on its side while merging from Highway 427 onto the QEW. The four, which were reportedly en route to a slaughterhouse, escaped the trailer and made their way
about half a kilometre along the highway before exiting at the Dixie Road ramp.
Two were corralled relatively quickly, but two more meandered into a residential area. One woman said she and her husband could hardly believe their eyes.
"My husband's looking out of our bedroom window, and he says, 'I see a black cow,' and I said, 'You're nuts,' " recounted Irene Gabon. "He just had quadruple bypass
surgery a few weeks ago, and I said it was the medication."
After roaming the streets and cutting through one household's backyard, the two bovines became belligerent and started charging at police officers, the news media
and their owner. One steer was cornered and coaxed into a trailer, but the fourth - after striking several people, including its owner and a cameraman - turned abruptly
and charged at an OPP officer, who shot it repeatedly with his sidearm revolver.
