Loose calf runs to Prospect Park, police say

A calf on the loose in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, was finally captured in Prospect Park, police said. Photo Credit: EA Sports

A loose calf was cornered by police in Prospect Park after it was seen running through the streets in Brooklyn Tuesday, the NYPD said.

Cops were first alerted at about 11:33 a.m. when the male calf was seen running near the Prospect Expressway.

As the calf ran near Park Circle and Prospect Park Southwest, the animal ran into a 2-year-old girl who was sitting in a stroller, police said. The girl, who was with her mom at the time, fell out of the stroller and cut her lip. She was taken to a hospital for treatment and released, police said.

Shortly after noon, officers caught up with the calf on the fields of the Prospect Park Parade Ground, near Coney Island and Caton avenues, police said. Emergency Service Unit officers used soccer goalposts to fence in the animal on a baseball diamond, but the calf barreled through one of the nets, knocking down one of the officers.

One officer appeared to fire a tranquilizer dart at the calf, and about an hour after they arrived at the fields, the officers trapped it between two vehicles parked on either side of the field’s dugout.

Police let the calf roam between the cars for several minutes before roping it and loading it into an NYPD horse trailer. The animal was turned over to Animal Care Centers of NYC and later taken to the Skylands Animal Sanctuary in New Jersey.

As the officers were corralling the calf, spectators gathered, watching from behind a fence. Several people tweeted about seeing the calf running through the streets prior to his capture.

“Just saw a COW bolting up 17th St in S. Slope. On the sidewalk. In case I thought there was nothing new to be seen after a lifetime in NYC,” one user wrote.

Police believe the calf came from a slaughterhouse, but no one has come forward to claim it, they said. In the past, cows have escaped slaughterhouses in the city.

With Reuters