An escaped cow rammed by a police response car is “doing remarkably well”, her owner said.
The 10-month-old sustained grazes and a large cut to the leg during the incident that unfolded on Friday at around 8.55pm in Staines-upon-Thames.
Surrey Police received reports the animal was running loose and an officer used his 4x4 vehicle to hit Beau Lucy.
Channel 5 News obtained new video showing the calf standing in the corner of her enclosure with injuries.
Despite a “slight limp”, Beau Lucy is otherwise in a “remarkable condition” and breathing well, her owners said.
She escaped from Staines Moor where her herd was grazing and swam across a river.
The officer who was behind the wheel has been removed from frontline duties pending an investigation, Surrey Police announced on Sunday.
Online footage of the incident showed Beau Lucy in a residential street being hit twice by a police car, as a nearby member of the public shouts, “What are you doing that for?”
Beau Lucy got to her feet after the first strike and being thrown metres down the road, before being hit again by the 4x4 a second time.
10-month-old calf, Beau Lucy, who was rammed by a police car twice on a residential road in Staines, is now recovering at home in Surrey.
— Channel 5 News (@5_News) June 17, 2024
The officer has been removed from frontline duties.@tessa5news | #5News pic.twitter.com/yMQbBSLygP
She then remains on the ground, with her neck and top half of her body appearing to be stuck under the car. Officers then get out to assess the situation.
Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp said: “I fully appreciate the distress our handling of this incident has caused and will ensure that it is thoroughly and diligently investigated.
“In addition to an internal referral to our Professional Standards Department, we have also referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for independent consideration.
“At this time, the officer who was driving the police car has been removed from frontline duties pending the outcome of these investigations.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly had asked for a “full, urgent explanation” as to why officers used the car to ram the escaped animal, saying it seemed “unnecessarily heavy handed”.
It comes after Beau Lucy’s owner, a farmer who would only give his name as Rob, described the incident as “quite horrific” and “wrong” and said “it could have been handled so much better.”
Rob, who would not be drawn on whether the officers involved should face any disciplinary action, suggested that a vet should have been involved in Beau Lucy’s rescue, which may have avoided causing her distress.
He told PA news agency: “I think the video speaks for itself. It was quite horrific.
“The method of dealing with the situation was incorrect. It was wrong and I think that’s the message we’ve learned.
“I don’t understand why (the police) didn’t use a tranquilising dart.
“If they used a the animal would have calmed right down and gone over it if they needed to to get a halter on it or restrain it.
“I just think that there was poor communication, and they should have spoken to a vet really. If they did speak to a vet then surely it would have gone down the road of tranquillising.”
Beau Lucy was returned to Rob’s farm, located between the border between Surrey and Middlesex, on Saturday morning with bruises.
He said: “She’s a lot better. Time will tell because we don’t know what internal injuries she might have.”
Beau Lucy is “sulking a bit” and “limping” and she is also on antibiotics and painkillers.
Surrey’s police and crime commissioner Lisa Townsend, said: “There is much speculation on social media, which does not necessarily reflect the situation, which was ongoing for a number of hours, or the difficult decisions facing officers on the ground at the time.
“I agree the force were right to opt for a self referral in this instance, and I know they are also thoroughly evaluating the incident internally.”
