LANSING, Mich. — A cow that came off a livestock trailer on US-127 in Lansing forced the northbound ramp to Lake Lansing Road to close Wednesday and was later shot by police after repeated efforts to sedate it did not work.
The city of Lansing sent out a traffic alert about the closed ramp at about 11 a.m. The East Lansing Police Department said the animal seemed to have either escaped or dropped from a trailer near the ramp.
Ingham County Animal Control and Shelter said the cow had not been tied down properly for the trip. The person hauling it did not realize it was gone until reaching a destination more than an hour away.
Shelter officers were called in to help move the cow before it could wander off the highway and into neighborhoods to the east. Their tranquilizer drugs had almost no effect, and the cow pushed through several fences as it roamed.
It eventually reached a crowded residential area close to an elementary school. In East Lansing, Robert L. Green Elementary School kept recess indoors after the cow was spotted near its playground, and police advised the school to hold dismissal.
A veterinarian called to the scene could not sedate the animal either. With no safe way to contain it, local officers shot and killed the cow. Animal control officers planned to bring it to a veterinarian at Michigan State University.
Section: More Lansing MI crime news
