Canned beef

How would you go about extricating 80 grown cattle from a double-decker livestock hauler that has been flipped on its side with the rear doors jammed? That's the dilemma local authorities (Shreveport) faced yesterday when a lost driver tried to make a turnaround out of a store parking lot and cut too short. He was hauling the cattle from a nearby ranch, enroute to Colorado. He was only a quarter-mile short of his link-up with an interstate; why he exited from a major state highway onto a parallel service road in a busy commercial area is unknown to me; he's probably now wondering the same thing too.

The incident shut down the major highway and the service road for most of the day while police, sheriff's deputies (including the Sheriff's livestock patrol unit) and firemen worked to straighten out the mess. To me, looking at it from a distance, the logistics of the thing seemed mind-boggling: where do you quickly find enough wranglers, trailers and equipment to attack this problem?

Apparently they figured it out. They used jaws-of-life gear to open holes in the trailer. How they got the individual cattle out and into waiting gooseneck trailers, I don't know. The fire department, in addition to loaning their jaws, kept the cattle cooled with a spray of water throughout the ordeal. I understand that 24 cattle were killed in the wreck or put down. I wish I could provide more details but my local newspaper has this philosophy that if the TV cameras cover an event prior to their press time, the event never happened or was unworthy of their attention; "tree falls in the forest" sort of reasoning.

Yank the doors off and round them up later.

But Emergency responders do things differently as they have to be care of the PETA folks out there

I would generally agree with your theory; however, the doors were blocked by an embankment, and this was in the middle of a commercial, high-traffic, high-populated area. I even wondered why they couldn't winch the trailer upright again. Just glad it wasn't my responsibility.

(quoted from post at 13:17:19 07/15/15) I would generally agree with your theory; however, the doors were blocked by an embankment, and this was in the middle of a commercial, high-traffic, high-populated area. I even wondered why they couldn't winch the trailer upright again. Just glad it wasn't my responsibility.

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I can see where the embankment would be an issue. Other than that I might have been good for nice city folk to actually see where their beef comes from.

Heard a guy the other day spouting off about why do we have to kill the animals. If they want meat just go to the grocery store. I about spit my soda out from laughing.

Then another old country boy and I explained to him where the grocery store gets their meat.

You should have seen the shocked look on his face.....

Then we explained about veggies....

Yea, glad its not my responsibility either. Hope someone had good insurance, 24 dead cattle is a lot of money out of the wallet.

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(quoted from post at 14:22:51 07/15/15)
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Had the hunting conversations too. Those folks usually shutup after I explain about forage acres per deer and the issues with over population, disease, starvation, lack of enough predators and other issues. The topic usually never comes back up.

I even have hunting purest that put me down for the way I skin my deer by hanging them from the head and using my truck to pull the hide off. Even though I process them myself that doesn't make it any better to those purest.

Doesn't bother me though. I just laugh at them and go on my way. They don't buy my firearm's, ammo, license or give me a place to hunt so they have no say in it from my point of view.

I actually enjoy the conversations though

If you think about it, it was probably best for public safety, better for the trucking company's liability, and even better for the cattle to keep the cattle confined in the trailer until they could be transferred into another trailer. When spooked cattle get loose in urban areas it's a big mess. The animals get hit by cars, secondary accidents happen as driver avoid the animals or gawk at what's happening and traffic gets snarled up. Police departments don't have the man power or the budget to corral cattle, so the animals have to be cornered and shot as quickly as possible. It seems wrong, but it's likely that 56 of the 80 animals survived by keeping them in the overturned trailer.

Was the driver a commercial driver or a ranch hand?

This Baxter Black's poem says it all about Vegans, always funny. joe
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Absolutely PRICELESS ! !

Several years ago a cattle truck flipped and fell off a bridge in Baton Rouge.

Do not know if you know Baton Rouge but..........
Truck was headed west on I-10. Right where I-110 splits off and you make that hard left to start your climb up the Mississippi river bridge. Truck was going to fast for the turn; flipped; and fell off the bridge on to I-110 south.
They have since raised the guardrail from the normal 2 or 3 feet high to 8 or 10 feet high to keep trucks from falling off again.

Anyway when the trailer hit the ground it busted open. Had cows running all over the highway.
Cops really had no choice but their solution to the problem was to close the road; and once the roadway was clear of cars; they shot every cow where it stood.

That was hilarious! I think someone needs to start a movement to protect vegetables the same as they try to protect animals, and see where the vegetarians go from there.

Too bad there wasn't a slaughter house close enough that some of the meat could have been saved.

Yeah, too bad. They hauled the carcasses back to where they came from and buried 'em. They could have made that meat available to some of our local 'recipients'. Have a big bah-bu-cue. Help them keep up their strength.

Gotta love all these idiots that think the meat "grows" in the plastic packages in the supermarket. LOL


:>)