Friday, August 20, 1999
Livestock collide with development
Boone aims to rein in farm strays
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON, Ky. — Boone County has all the issues of growth. Spreading subdivisions. Roads in need of repair. Cows in parking lots.
The latter happened in the spring when Kim Struewing of Elsmere waited to catch the bus at Bigg's.
“I look up and I see a big, huge steer walking in front of my car,” she said. “I called 911. I couldn't believe it was walking ... like it was in its own back yard.”
With the penetration of residential and commercial development near rural areas, the county's Animal Care and Control Department has seen an increase over the past two years in the number of loose-livestock calls.
“Callers will say, "You'll probably think I'm crazy; however, there's a cow in my front yard,'” said Beckey Reiter, director of the department.
Cows in front yards, potbellied pigs in bushes and goats roaming everywhere are common enough that the department has started the first “livestock retrieval program” in the state.
“The program is designed to help diminish the potential hazard loose livestock poses to the general public,” Ms. Reiter said. “I don't believe there is an increase of livestock getting loose. The population has increased, making the situation more visible.”
And livestock doesn't mean just cattle.
“It can be an ostrich or an emu, too,” Ms. Reiter said. “We actually have some in the county, but we haven't had any calls, thank goodness.”
Years ago, before Boone County's booming development, a farmer would call surrounding farms to find the owner of a loose animal and help round it up.
“I believe this increase is due to more individuals contacting our department instead of neighbors,” Ms. Reiter said.
The program will help get the animals in corrals more quickly and notify owners immediately, lowering the potential liability of local farmers and livestock owners and the risk of accidents.
That risk could be great. The 800-pound steer that was found in the Bigg's parking lot eventually had to be shot.
“He became spooked because of the traffic and the commotion,” Ms. Reiter said. “Before the pins could be placed in the corral, he busted right through it.”
He then charged toward Interstate 71/75. One of Ms. Reiter's greatest fears is to have an animal cause an accident on the highway.
“Just the sheer weight alone and it being high off the ground, that's a scary thought,” she said.
Animal-control personnel spend many hours randomly calling farmers to find owners of animals who have gotten loose.
The new program will document the location of each pasture, paddock or stable. Farmers can also register their animals, so when a call is received, an animal control officer can notify any owner who has an animal of that description.
Pat Kelly, who owns Kellygreen Farm in Burlington, said the new program will help farmers tremendously. Last year, one of his bulls was shot by a neighbor after the 1,500-pound animal broke a fence to get to some neighboring females.
After the animal was shot, it fought for a while and then roamed for three weeks before animal control officers caught up with it again.
“He was nothing but raw muscle, and he was upset at the world,” Mr. Kelly said.
Animal-control officers were not able to handle the bull, and it had to be destroyed.
“Boone County is no longer an agricultural, rural community,” he said. “We are growing so fast.”
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