Home secretary demands ‘urgent explanation’ over ‘heavy-handed’ attempt to capture wandering animal
The home secretary has rightly asked Surrey police to provide a “full, urgent explanation” after footage showed officers using a car to ram an escaped cow.
James Cleverly made the comments after shocking footage posted online showed officers ramming the cow twice with their police car, while an onlooker is heard shouting: “What are you doing that for?”
In a post on X, Cleverly wrote: “I can think of no reasonable need for this action. I’ve asked for a full, urgent explanation for this. It appears to be unnecessarily heavy-handed.”
The incident occurred on Friday evening after Surrey police received reports about a cow running around on a number of main roads in the Staines-upon-Thames area. According to police, they received reports that the cow was charging at members of the public and had damaged a car.
The cow got back to its feet after the first strike, but the police car hit it a second time and appeared to come to a stop with the animal underneath the vehicle.
A Surrey police spokesperson said they tried to safely capture the cow over a number of hours and explored a number of options before hitting it with a car.
Surely as a stun gun could have been used or a tranquilliser.
The action taken was nothing but barbaric, cruelty and completely out of proportion.
I will not share the video as could cause distress but widely available to view online.
The force said the matter had been referred to its professional standards department.
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