There's a sad ending to a cattle escape along one of the country's busiest highways on Thursday morning.

Two cows, a steer and a bull ran into a residential neighbourhood in Mississauga.
(Bridget O'Toole/CBC)

One of the animals was shot and killed by Ontario Provincial Police officers in Mississauga, Ont., after it injured two people and then repeatedly charged at police.

Const. Dave Woodford said police made the decision to shoot because of concerns for the safety of the officers and the public.

The incident began at about 6:30 a.m. when a trailer carrying the animals flipped over on the Queen Elizabeth Way near Highway 427. 

The animals — two cows, a steer and a bull — suddenly freed from the trailer fled onto the highway, causing chaos in the westbound lanes and forcing police to shut down the busy roadway for about an hour while they tried to get the animals off to the shoulder.

The cattle finally moved off to the side, but then continued running into a nearby residential neighbourhood.

It took a while to round up the animals. Then the steer bolted and was shot by police.
(Bridget O'Toole/CBC)

All of the animals were finally rounded up on Brentano Boulevard in Mississauga. Although three were fairly docile and easy to move into a new trailer, one of the animals was spooked, bolted and injured a handler and a TV camera operator.

Officers firing their service revolvers brought down the steer, which weighed about 1,000 kilograms.

Woodford said the OPP were in the process of talking to their counterparts at Peel Regional Police, trying to determine whether the other force had tranquilizer darts, when the steer turned aggressive. If it hit a person, said Woodford, explaining why police took the drastic action, "it would be like a car hitting you head on."

Answering reporters' questions, Woodford appeared shaken and upset, as did other officers who had tried for more than four hours to corral the animals to safety.

 

The escaped animals caused quite a commotion in the Mississauga neighbourhood. One local resident took this photo of the crowd of police and media looking for the steer, which disappeared after running down Sunnycove Drive.
(William F. Brunton)

Bill Brunton saw the steer in his backyard. He wrote in an e-mail that "police cars, TV trucks, and Peel Region [police] vehicles with 30 or 40 onlookers were all congregated at the corner of Tarn and Sunnycove when the steer was in our backyard.

"The steer charged over a snowbank at one of the cowboys, and ran around the police cars, knocking over a CITY-TV camera and tripod after the cameraman tried to jump out of the way in the nick of time. Everybody was running for cover!" 

Officers firing their service revolvers brought down the steer, which weighed about 1,000 kilograms.

The neighbourhood contains a ravine that, from time to time, looks more like a wildlife roadway.

Residents say they've seen a lot of animals emerge from the ravine, but this was unusual.

"We get all kinds of animals coming out of the ravine — coyotes, foxes, deer, but never a cow," said Bridget O'Toole, a CBC Sports producer who had one of the animals in her backyard.