In this article I express my opinion as well as reporting on the news. Please remember that. I don’t like the police! 😡 And this story reinforces my dislike but I must be fair. This was an emergencies the police say but they were involved in it for 3 hours apparently. Wasn’t there enough time to call for help from experts? And we’re not told what other methods were tried and which we are also told failed. Nicely vague I’d say. An excuse heavy-handed methods which were destined to fail anyway? Please read on.
The headline today is “Fury after police car rams calf”. It’s in The Sunday Times. The video below is shocking and disturbing. Don’t watch it if you think it may harm you psychologically.
Update: the police actually drove into the calf four times according to an eye witness!
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There was a calf running loose on a suburban road on the outskirts of London. A couple of police officers driving their police car didn’t know what to do to stop the calf running around loose which they thought might harm people and so they decided to ram the calf not once but twice. The calf ended up under the vehicle’s bonnet/hood.
Fortunately, the calf survived with a badly cut leg which surprises me seeing as it was rammed twice but the upshot of this behaviour is that there will be a police investigation (which rarely produces anything tangible because they always cover for themselves); and there’s been lots of criticism including by me.
For example, the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, criticise them in a tweet. He retweeted the footage with a message saying:
“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.”
Home Secretary
That is coded language which means that he is upset about this action and it also means to me that some heads might roll and I hope so.
The sports broadcaster Gabby Logan, retweeted the Home Secretary’s tweet suggesting that it might be a “stackable offence”.
I like to comment on that. To my mind this is quite possibly a crime under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. It’s an alleged crime under that act of animal cruelty. The police will defend themselves by saying that they felt it was necessary because they tried other means to stop the calf and, as mentioned, needed to protect the public. However, it was indeed heavy-handed. And there’s a very good argument that it is allegedly a crime. And if it’s a crime then these officers should be sacked.
They won’t be sacked because that’s how the police work and it is one reason why people don’t trust the police any more.
Yesterday, Surrey police admitted the vehicle that ploughed into the calf longed to the force, which is surprising seeing is the word “Police” is written all over the vehicle! 😎😢
The police force said that the calf had survived but “sustained a large cut to his leg”. They appear to have justified the behaviour of their police officers by saying that they were “extremely concerned about the public’s safety” and that other methods to stop the calf “had failed”.
They referred himself to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Chris Packham waded in on Twitter/X and you can see his tweet above. He is the BBC Springwatch presenter and he is also the president of the RSPCA. As you can see in his tweet, he argues that it was an illegal action and the police officers need to be investigated and possibly prosecuted. He asks “What sort of monster rams a calf? Twice?”
Many people have asked the RSPCA to investigate. In the UK the RSPCA can prosecute under the Animal Welfare Act and other legislation concerned with animal welfare.
At this stage, we don’t know where the calf came from but he was knocked down close to Bedfont Lakes country Park and Saint Dunstan’s Meadow in Feltham, west London near Hounslow. Hounslow Heath was known to be the home of a herd of cattle and is about 3 miles away.
Comment: there is an argument there if this is the case that the owner of this herd of cattle should also be checked out and possibly prosecuted.
Surrey police added in a statement that “The car was running loose throughout the evening on a number of main roads, and during this time we received numerous calls from the public reporting a car being damaged and it running at members of the public (exaggerations?). Given these reports, officers were extremely concerned about the public’s safety and over a period of a number of hours tried a number of options to safely capture the cow. Unfortunately, these were unsuccessful and the decision was made to stop it using a police car. This matter has been referred to our professional standards department. The Independent Office for Police Conduct has been notified and a voluntary referral will be made in due course.”
The cows now been moved to a nearby farm and as mentioned it has a large cut on his leg and a vet was treating it. The owner had been identified.
Chief Inspector Sam Adcock of Sorry police said: “The decision to use the police car is one that was only taken after other methods to stop the cat had failed. There will be an investigation into the actions that led to this, but our focus at all times is on ensuring the safety of the public.”
As you can see, there’s a lot of repetition in this article! The RSPCA added that “This is upsetting and distressing footage. The action appears disproportionate to the situation. We are happy to assist in any investigations carried out.”
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I am able to update this post because it’s all over the news! The first point to make is that an eyewitness said that the police rammed the calf four times not twice. Another interesting point is that although the calf is now back to where they belong at a farm, the owner of the farm said that the calf may die of shock even at this late stage.
The calf was effectively saved by bystanders one of whom monitored the cow who ran into a park. They said: “The calf ran into the park and the police asked me to lock one of the gates. It was just me and the calf for about two hours. I was keeping her calm. At one point we were in the playground. I heard on the police radio them calling for firearms officers, so I stayed with it and told them there’s no way I was letting them shoot it. Two local men turned up and one had a horse box. By this point I had some rope and lassoed the animal. The three of us very gently guided it into the horsebox. She was causing absolutely no harm. She just grazed a couple of cars and people were so angry at how heavy-handed the police were being.”
There were reports that the calf had rammed some parked cars. That was actually repeated on the radio by a presenter for LBC. I was upset to hear that because as we now know on first and evidence the calf simply grazed some parked cars. It would seem to me that this calf was not a threat to people as the police have said. The police justified apparently trying to kill the calf (which is what it looks like) because they were genuinely fearful of the harm the calf might cause people but I think that was exaggerated.
The driver of the police vehicle has now been taken off frontline duties while an investigation takes place.
Advocates for Animals a law firm, said that it had been instructed by the charity Humane Society International UK to look into prosecutions. In other words, it is possible that this police officer will be prosecuted. I assumed in the article that there was a police passenger as well because police officers always drive around in their cars in twos.
People who were present in the area at the time of the incident were horrified and shocked and they screamed. One of them thought that the intention was to kill the calf and they thought that the calf had been killed because it ended up under the car.
In the article I allege that this may have been a crime. To all intents and purposes, it does look like a crime in full view of the public and by a police officer. The reason why it was so shocking is because we expect these officers to be more sensitive towards animal welfare and be more intelligent in their activities. They simply had to find help. It seems they were frightened of the calf themselves. They panicked and made a panic judgement. It’s not the sort of qualities that one wants to see in a police officer.