Pelham Police Zap Wandering Cow With Taser, Owner Furious

June 10, 2011 6:39 PM

Houdini the cow. (photo courtesy: Lowell Sun)

Reporting Carl Stevens

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PELHAM, N.H. (CBS) - Pelham police say they were justified in using a Taser several times on a cow, despite a complaint from its owner.

Last Saturday, one of Wendy Bordeleau’s two cows got loose from her 30-acre farm.

About a dozen people were trying to coral 800-pound Houdini across busy Mammoth Road when police showed up with their tasers.

“They said ‘We’re going to tase her, we’re going to taser it,’ and the group was pleading with them. Everyone was kinda yelling, ‘Please don’t taser the cow, it’s only going to make it worse,” she told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

Houdini was zapped at least four times.

WBZ-TV’s Jim Smith reports

“It didn’t really affect the cow all that much. It kind of realized that something had hit it and that it was comparable to a bee sting.”

However, Bordeleau thought police went too far.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports

Sgt. Mike Pickles told WBZ he made the right decision.

“It blew through a wooden fence right next to me. That was the time a decision was made. I have to do something to try and control this animal,” he said.

“As a matter of public safety, that is a better option than just allowing things to happen and people get hurt.”

The cow made it home safely and, at last check, was eating grass.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens contributed to this report.

Pelham Police Zap Wandering Cow With Taser, Owner Furious

Houdini

Sgt. Mike Pickles told WBZ he made the right decision.

“It blew through a wooden fence right next to me. That was the time a decision was made. I have to do something to try and control this animal.”

of course because it became about YOU at that point? idiot

MJ

the cops are big babies, being afraid of a cow.

Reality Check

Where, exactly, did the article say anything about “shooting into someone’s car” ?

It is very difficult to have an intelligent conversation with anyone who “makes up facts” out of thin air.

st1d

Sadly, that’s literally true. Police in most areas have to take IQ tests, and if they score too high, they’re rejected, because they might become ‘bored’.

The end result is a bunch of self-important, stunningly stupid idiots with too much power.

Hmm, they must apply the same IQ tests for govt jobs…
irishmare

Dateline Bar Harbor/last week: Car deer collision leaving wounded deer. Stay with me on this! A couple of the local guys were there when the rookie cop shows up and admits he’s not sure what to do. The locals say get in close behind the ear and shoot him with your pistol. Splat, splatter, gross…blood and brain matter everywhere since he has hollow points!!!

Barney Fife in person.

Rob

Yeah that’s what you do; kill it quick and with respect. I have done this with dogs and other animals. I have also handed a pistol to the dogs owner to put his own dog down. That’s the real world Barney Fife and all. At least he didn’t stand there and watch a animal suffer. Whats better a person who takes action and does the hard task or the guy that has a camera phone.
Oh and on the cops tazzzzing a cow. Has anyone heard of a cattle prod. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_prod No big deal had it been a poor person they would have shot them.
Dustin

Rob,

Don’t you think it makes more sense not to shoot a pistol into someone’s car?

What a mess, and also dangerous. You sound so impressed with the fact you’ve euthanized animals that you overlook irishmare’s point. We all understand the need to euthanize hopelessly injured animals. That wasn’t the point.
Reality Check

Dustin,

Where, exactly, did the article say anything about “shooting into someone’s car” ?

It is very difficult to have an intelligent conversation with anyone who “makes up facts” out of thin air.

Susan See

I wonder what these idiots did before Lasers International persuaded law enforcement to replace reason with shooting living things with tasers? They have already killed people and are now illegal above the waist in Canada. Eventually congress will outlaw them but we have to have a few more deaths of children.

Jesse

That’s the spirit! Just ban it and that will make it go away.
frodaddy

yeah cause a nine millimeter bullet would be so much morw humane, come on idiots would you really rather be shot with a gun or tasere’d.
Jim Kress

9mm vs Taser. Doesn’t make much difference. Both are nearly the same in terms of fatalities caused.
LOLWUT

“9mm vs Taser. Doesn’t make much difference. Both are nearly the same in terms of fatalities caused.”

LOLOLOLOLOLWHAT!?!?!?

CLEARLY you have no clue what a firearm is. Clearly.

bill okeefe

the police should kill the cow by lethal injection….its the AMERICAN way
Defeatlierals

Reminds me of Jimmy Carter attacking that killer wabbit on the lake many years ago. What a bunch of buffoons!!

DefeatLiberals

make that Defeat Liberals. Sorry 4 the typo.
Linda

I know. The poor wabbit was seeking refuge and coward Jimmy abused it.

lwlfnm

Try to control yourself next time. Taser will do a wonderful job
BambiB

How hard would it have been for the cops to use their BRAINS instead of their TASERS and simply park their car with lights flashing and put out a couple road flares to warn drivers?

Oh yeah. Cops. Brains. I see the problem.
watcherinthebushes

Sorry, but I grew up on a ranch in Montana. I can tell you from firsthand knowlege, not some magazine story or television show, that a cow can quickly turn from “Bessie” into 500 pounds of stupid-mean in a second.

Still doesn’t excuse this macho stud using his taser. But haveing “been there” I can tell you that bad things can happen at the hoofs of even this “sweetest” cow wit the “dreamiest eyes.”

lookout its a cow

Yea cows are such scarry animals…Too bad it wasnt a bull would love to see these idiots taser a bull!! Now that would be funny.
Philip Inuhoff

You grew up on a farm and you think cows weigh 500 ponds?

The story says houdini weighs 800 lbs.. probably a yearling. Grown hereford heifer weighs 1200 to 1500 lbs… a bull weighs 2000 – 2500 lbs!!!

You can’t use a taser made for a 250 lb person!!! What fools.

That idiot cop is lucky Houdini didn’t bolt into a crowd and kill people.

jwidener

No fence would stop Houdini from escaping!

sean

At least they didn’t shoot it…a lot of farms have electric fences to contain the animals so what’s the difference?

tsal

The animals have a choice to stay away from the electric fence and do. This cow had no choice about being tasered.

Anon

What about commonly used electric cattle prods?
tsal

Cattle prods are shaped like long rods and built to deliver a short, localized shock, of between 1,500 and 10,000 volts. By contrast, stun guns are usually shaped like guns and are designed to deliver a much larger charge, one that can send electricity through the whole body. This confuses the person’s nervous system, causing their muscles to temporarily cease functioning.
Chuckles

You have absolutely no clue of what you are talking about. First, an 800 pound animal wold have no idea that it had been shocked as its body would disperse the charge almost instantaneously. Second, “its shaped like a gun” how is that part bad?? Third cattle prods DO NOT deliver a localized shock of between 1,500 and 10,000 volts. You PETA freaks really need to get some facts straight before you flame on. By the way, the accompanying picture of the weanling calf shown in the picture, is absolutely nothing like an 800 pound drool bucket that pretty much goes where it wants to.
TheBrain

Chuckles- You understand if it wasn’t for the “PETA freaks” and “Humane Society locos” that you would probably be dead from Mad Cow disease, right? Or do you trust government workers to do the decades of investigations for you? These fringe groups do more good than you will ever understand because you only know of them what stories the media feeds you. And the media ain’t interested in stories that aren’t outrageous, so that’s why you only know the crazy side of those groups.
Drew

TheBrain- PETA and HSUS had absolutely nothing to with with preventing BSE, or mad cow, in people. Do you reseaarch. A cow has never contracted mad cow in the U.S. The only cow that was ever found with it came from Canada, it was imported. PETA and the HSUS have never done any good for animal agriculture, or animals. They are their worst enemy.
Freddy

>> Third cattle prods DO NOT deliver a localized shock of between 1,500 and 10,000 volts.

Chuckles: What ? Yes they do. Look it up like I just did. What do you think they do, deliver a puff of sparkly fairy dust and good vibes ? It’s a cattle prod, dimwit.

Susan See

They NEVER shoot stray cows. Where do you live? in a cave?
doctordoom

jeez, dont need fences, just dangle food in front of cow. it will follow wherever you want it to go. guess we have lost touch with our rural roots.

Reality Check

Agreed.

Sounds like the local cops need one of two things:

1. More training on domestic cow psychology, or,

2. Anti-Cow weapons so they can effectively escalate the violence between police and cows.

The real news here is the taser, even with repeated use on the cow, and the taser absolutely failed to “control the cow”, which was the reason the Police claimed they used the Taser.

The police also failed to “control the cow” making them appear to be both infective and ignorant.

Which, apparently, they are.
Jim Kress

I thin we need a Federal War on Loose Cows. Loose Cows are a major danger to society.

We can create a new agency called the LCEA (Loose Cow Enforcement Agency) , arm them with military weapons, provide them with no-knock warrant powers and let them bust down doors and shoot innocent people – just so we can get this Loose Cow problem under control.

Yermove

Hey, as a child who spent my summers on a family farm in NH in the ’60s I can tell you that those fences are not anywhere near as powerful as a taser. Please stop being ignorant and have a heart.
Defeat Liberals

The voltage. Typical electric fence isn’t anywhere close to 40000 volts from a taser.

jaygee

What other reaction would someone expect from a guy named Pickles? Fortunately, for the cow, Barney Fife & amigos didn’t empty their revolvers on it.

Go ahead, make my steak.

With the extensive firearm training local law enforcement goes thru, they wouldn’t have hit the cow.

james

haha toooooo funny, a double tap of humor
jaygee

You are correct since Pickles missed on the first 2 attempts. He connected on the 3rd but the cow just looked at him and grinned. He then called SWAT but in Pelham that only consists of 3- 80 year old volunteers.

timma

houdini would look great w a side of mashed, gravy, and some carrots

Cousin Eddie

That’s what I am talking about. MMMMMmmmmmm, MMMMmmmmmm, good!

cb

So, it it’s OK to tase first and ask questions later about a calm animal, I guess it’s OK to shoot the revolver first, then ask questions when pulling over someone for speeding! Think of the scene that the idiot cop would have made if the cow had a cardiac arrest in the middle of the road!

JMS

Yeah, and would the police force have ponied up the cash value of the animal they just killed?

Will

How is this even a debate? Does anyone care that animals regularly hurt themselves when they are lose in a urban area? This cow ran THROUGH a fence. There’s no telling what this scared 800 lb animal would run over or through next. Maybe a few bystanders? Tazing the cow was the best immediate option available to the police.

You can argue best case scenarios all you want, but the people that were in the situation, made a judgement call that potentially saved the animal, property, and bystanders from further damage.

Besides, we would all be question why this cow wasn’t hamburger meat if it had run a person down in its fright.
Reality Check

Will,

You make a great argument for placing TSA agents on all farms to protect us from 800 pound cows the same way TSA agents keep us all safe from terrorists.

We all need people like you to educate us about the threat posed by these 800 pound animals.

Thank-you again, Will, for educating all us sheep to the dangers of cows.
JeddMcHead

Reality Check — even tugging on udders isn’t near as invasive as the TSA. If the TSA treated farm animals the way they treat travelers PETA would be all over them!

tsal

My guess is had the owners been allowed to do what they knew would work with the cow, the problem would have been solved. Cows, horses, other livestock get out all of the time. I rarely hear of a problem. Perhaps the police could have stopped traffic long enough for the owner to calm the animal and get it back to where it belonged. It’s instinct for a cow to run when feeling threatened. It’s up to a person to act like someone with a brain and realize that rather than act panicked like the cow.

Marbran

Now you’re just asking too much of our fine police officers! Don’t you know that they only know how to solve a problem with a ticket, handcuffs, a taser, or a gun? Those are the four tools in their arsenal; not brains, not compassion, and certainly not patience and understanding, especialy when a deranged, menacing cow is threatening the safety of the public!

Matt

They should have shot it and sent her a bill for the bullets. You don’t want your cow tased then keep it on your property. Hamburger, it’s what’s for dinner.

JMS

Clearly, you’ve never worked on a farm or comprehend the difficulty of maintaining fences.

Rich Pope

JMS, it is clear you are PROUD to be a farm-fed, country f-ck!

LEL MN

Spoken like a true City Boy. Yes. Beef is what’s for dinner. They grow the cows outside the cities.
rick

obviously your a dumb ass that thinks meat comes in packages

Tony

The Cops taser an “Overly Agressive” 88 year old man, Why not a cow, ya never know it could have been a “Mad Cow” !! LMAO
fearless

this is bs. mammouth rd is a highway. Hitting a cow at 40 miles an hour would kill the cow and driver. A taser isnt going to hurt a cow. He would have been justified in shooting the thing in the intreast of public saftey. sgt pickles is a great cop and used his head. By the way they don’t mention that the owners will prob slaughter the cow come fall. Either way I would have cited the owner for not proberly stabling his lifestock

CowFriend

How about you learn more about what you’re talking about? The pen where the cows are kept is a heavily wooded area overgrown with grass perfect for the cows to have some privacy and graze bountifully. It’s hard to tell where a cow might bust through. By the way, there was no danger of someone hitting the cow and dying because the road was blocked off, moron.
Me

Cow stable? Wow you are dumb. Liberal? Just a guess.

Charles U. Farley

How about a cow paddy?
Defeat Liberals

Well stated. Probably couldn’t tell the difference etween a cow pie and a road apple either,

dave

the fact that buffoons like him….are armed with tasers and cannot police properly is mind blowing I agree..IT BLUE THROUGH A FENCE..
OK, ITS NOT A BULL THATS JUST BEEN GORED…..
emom

Really Barney Fife certainly has no Idea how to deal with live stock. There was a much better way to get the cow to go back to its barn. Really sounds like this guy may have come from the city. Many times growing up My dad would tell me of how they would get the livestock back to their pens or back into the fields when they would escape. Sure they manage to get to a road. But this is nothing new. This happens all the time. In the Midwest it happens there are so many farms there, Heck even the wild antelope in Arizona are crossing the roads, Deer, moose and many wildlife cross roads, Do we always shot or even taser them… NO We stop traffic and get them some how across the road. One way to get an animal to move show it food. Many will follow food. They are grazers they always eat, to many folks around an animal makes it feel cornered, If it feels this way sure its going to have that wild eyed look and possible charge or run. Move people and vehicles away, The cow probably felt threatened,, THAT’S why is run over a fence pasted you fool… He is lucky it didn’t accidentally run over him. Then we would be hearing that it had to be put down… ITS AN ANIMAL THAT WAS SCARED.. NO WILD LIKE A MOOSE OR WORSE A BEAR…….. Let the farm handle the animals they know what to do. Oh a taser obviously is no good that’s why the use cattle prod’s … they pack a larger volt… How foolish..
fearless

what is the difference between a bull and cow in weight 3 4oo lbs?
it had already caused property damage. Mammouth road is a high traffic road.
Most other agencies would have shot the cow as this one did itself it the inteast of public safety 2 years ago. It is chattel, should have been confined to its pasture and the owners own lack of experience with cows helped lead to the tasering.

12 adults had already spent over 2 hours trying to get the cow to go into a makeshift pen. Which by the way when the cow was finaly placed into the pen it promptly escaped from that, injuring itself.

Stop blaming the police for avoiding a fatality on the road and for not having to euthinize the cow. How about a well deserved thumbs up to the PPD. By the way call me up in the fall when you slaughter bessie so I can have a rump roast.

LEL MN

How is it you feel entitled to a rump roast?
funnier than glass in the eye

12 adults huh!!
KMO

Only sensible comment on here. I toally agree with you
Ib Snooker

fearless said:
“Stop blaming the police for avoiding a fatality on the road and for not having to euthinize the cow. How about a well deserved thumbs up to the PPD.”

No, Sgt Pickles made a bad decision and people are calling him on it. There were really only two possible outcomes from his decision. One, like happened here, the animal barely reacts and Sgt Pickles ends up looking like a “tase happy” idiot. Two, the animal freaks out and rampages, thereby escalating the situation, and Sgt Pickles ends up looking like a “tase happy” idiot. So I guess there was really only one outcome.
Tasers are designed to subdue people. Police are trained to use tasers to subdue people. What was he going to do, handcuff the animal? The surest way for a LEO to end up in civil court is to act outside of his training and established procedures. This guy is no gung-ho rookie, he’s a sergant. He should know better. If this is the quality of Sgt Pickles’ decisions, then the taxpayers of Pelham should start looking for a new sergant, because this guy is a potential liability.

Karl

Only sensible comment on here. I toally agree with you
David B. Ogden

+1

LEL MN

Nothing bothers a cop more than not being “in control”. This attitude works ok in densely populated crime ridden urban environment. But when this kind of cop winds up in a rural farm setting it like putting a barracuda in a goldfish tank.
On the other hand maybe this guy is a bored country cop with a brand new Taser he was anxious to try out.

Milky

I bet he instructed the cow to freeze a few times before he tased it.

Defeat Liberals

No doubt about that. Probaly thinking it would produce ice cream. ;-)
MarkBench

Showed his badge to the cow as well. This must be one of the rare events of this type what weren’t captured on a phone camera. Too bad. “Officer placed on administrative lave pending IA investigation.”

Officer uses the time to run for mayor. Leads in polls among nervous urban Libs.

Anon

WHY IS THIS FRONT PAGE NEWS!?!?!

LEL MN

To distract you from the transformation of America into an obamaNation. Or, if your already aware of the slow motion train wreck in progress, the cow article offers some comic relief.

McDade

City cops…. Small town cops and rural area deputies deal with loose livestock all the time. Cows are the easiest, they’re the smartest – they know how they got out, and they know they shouldn’t be out. Just get them headed in the right direction with you car, use the siren/horn with a SHORT blast or two, and they’ll head on back. Don’t rush them, don’t push them. Move your car slowly, keeping them moving to the hole from which they escaped. Once they’re around the hole, they’ll usually plow back in to where they should be. Doesn’t surprise me a taser didn’t phase the cow because those little barbs probably didn’t penetrate the hide enough to get the full charge.

tsal

One of the first sensible comments I’ve read here
Sheep?

I think the elite that own us think of us in the same manner.

Stay in the live stock pen and don’t try to escape, either physically or mentally.

porkchop

Me cop. Me taser cow. Me big man.

Me daddy never hugged me.
PunIntended

Guess you could say Houdini didn’t want to moooove over.
LEL MN

Police are the Law Enforcers, that’s why we have them, that’s their job. You want a peace officer? Call your mom.

Freedom

I think the point Doug was making was that there is no need for LEOs to kill mosquitoes with shotguns just cause they can.

There is no reason some intelligence and human compassion cannot be used while also enforcing the law.

The fact that you support over aggressive and overbearing treatment of the public and animals by the people who took the jobs to ostensibly protect us from that kind of violence means that you are one confused or sick individual.

Take you pick. Oh, and your momma swallows and is a nice peace. LEL.

FFS, making your mamma jokes, really?
Reality Check

All police are peace officers. There job is keeping the peace. The courts enforce the laws in this country. Police arrest people who break the peace and issue a summons to appear in court to those who do not break the peace, but are accused of breaking the law.

The United States does not have enough police to “enforce the laws” if that were truly their function.

Your statements indicates you have a basic misunderstanding of what it means to be a “nation of laws” as opposed to a dictatorship.

People like you are responsible for the mob violence that occurred in the Wisconsin state capital buildings recently.

Dave

There job is to obey there oath that they took to protect the people and the constitution.And if more police were peace officers instead of police officers just interested in making money for the corrupt state governments we wouldn’t have corrupt judges running admiralty law courts where there is no remedy for we the people.We need peace officers not police states where we the people have no rights
Henry Ostman

If you or I tasered an animal we’d get sent to prison for cruelty to animals, there are different rules for police.

Reality Check

All police are peace officers. There job is keeping the peace. The courts enforce the laws in this country. Police arrest people who break the peace and issue a summons to appear in court to those who do not break the peace, but are accused of breaking the law.

The United States does not have enough police to “enforce the laws” if that were truly their function.

Your statements indicates you have a basic misunderstanding of what it means to be a “nation of laws” as opposed to a dictatorship.

People like you are responsible for the mob violence that occurred in the Wisconsin state capital buildings recently.

check reality

The so-called laws only apply to the politically non-connected. (When is a pig ever found not to be following “procedure”?) It’s time that the tax-feeding pigs were the target of mob violence, instead of spp. porcis, bovis or Boobus Americanus.

Dave

Before they became law enforcers they were peace officers and the towns,cities and states were more protected then compared to what they call protection today
Rich Pope

So what law did the cow break that needed to be enforced?
Don

Want to be a coward? Be a cop.

ephil

now what he going to do if it had worked? that cow weighed 800lbs. stupid city cop, cows are easier to move when they do the walking.

Reality Check

Cuff him Danno.

Des

Some police officers are fools.
Bob Kellum

I’m with ephil. Suppose the Taser had worked? What then?
They should have somebody on the force who understands livestock. If not, why not?
The responsibility of the police is to protect everyone’s property. That includes the cow, and also the fence. Sounds like this guy panicked. Owner should have to pay for the fence and the Police time for engagement.
drawlr

ccccccccc
nadodave

You could hear the cow mooing “Don’t taze me bro”.
Rod Anders

Tasering it was a stupid thing to do. Cows can become vicious beasts when attacked. If you think pit bulls are dangerous … one enraged cow is equivalent to a pack of 12 pit bulls. I have seen a cow bite an 8″ diameter fence post cleanly in half with very litttle effort. The cop is lucky that everyone within earshot was not killed.

Michael

Now that is the funniest post yet. Thanks for the chuckle.

Karen

I am totally disgusted with all the comments and rude remarks from people who have no first hand experience, and were not there when the incident happened. Police take public safety very seriously. Show some respect. The owner should have been more responsible for keeping the cow contained properly and not causing a public safety issue.

Anon

You too, are one of those people making rude remarks. Maybe not about the police and how they dealt with the situation but about the owner.
janice

Police take their own safety seriously, the public be damned. That’s why they sneak around peoples’ back yards then bust through the front door at the wrong address. Many innocent people have been terrorized or ended up dead.
Elsie Borden

If you allow one cow to create a public disturbance, the whole herd will follow.

JeddMcHead

I dunno — the herd (surprisingly) abandoned Weiner.

kimmm

Karen, obviously you are not familiar with dealing with livestock. Do YOU know how to handle a cow or horse that has gotten out? Even the best fence is not escape proof. This was handled TOTALLY WRONG by the cops! the cow wasn’t the public safety issue, the inept cop was.

A few years back, the horse of a friend of mine got out one night while she was at work (later finding out someone cut the fence). She came home and called myself and a neighbor to give her a hand. Instead of just letting one of us walk down the road to catch up with him (as he was just walking along the side), the idiot cop had to show off and he CHASED THE HORSE WITH HIS CAR AND HEADLIGHTS ON BRIGHT. This scared the horse to death and he started running at full pace in the road half crazed due to a car on his backside and birght lights on him. What started as a horse just wandering down the side of a country road turend into a horse that thought he was running for his life with a police car chasing him down. THAT could have caused an accident.

Shall I give you a few other first hand experiences with cattle this time?

We have too many cops in rural areas who do NOT know what to do on a livestock call. They are more of a liability and a danger than the animal is, as they usually end up making the situation alot worse that it should be, not to mention more dangerous.