Runaway bull returns to N.S. beef farm on his own after brazen escape

A runaway bull who escaped from a rural Nova Scotia beef farm has made his own way home. But it isn’t exactly a happy ending for the four-legged escapee.

RCMP say a one-tonne bull was reported missing from his pasture area Sunday evening in Aylesford. Police issued a news release to caution drivers about the potentially dangerous animal because it could wander onto a road.

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It appears the bull had leaped over a seven-foot fence and made a break for it.

“He jumped over the fence because we could see the tracks coming out of the barn,” said Reinie Speelman, who owns the farm alongside her husband, Jan.

“I don’t know how he ever jumped it, but he did.”

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Speelman says family members spent Sunday night and Monday morning searching the nearby woods on their four-wheelers. They came across tracks, but were unable to find the animal.

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Just as they were about to give up, Reinie says her grandson returned to the farm and came across the escaped bull.

“When they came back, they were going around the barn and they seen tracks and tracks, and it went right into the barn,” she said.

It turns out the bull had gotten hungry and had made himself comfortable in the barn where the Speelmans keep their hay.

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“He’s been eating steady,” she said.

Speelman estimates the bull is about seven-years-old and says he has never run away before. Unfortunately, it appears his days are numbered.

The couple has been selling off their cattle after 50 years in the business and this particular bull was headed for the slaughterhouse.

“It’s a better ending than we expected. It’s a hard thing to catch one of those things,” Speelman said. “He weighs about a tonne. That’s a lot of bull.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's a better ending than we expected. It's a hard thing to catch one of those things," Speelman said. "He weighs about a tonne. That's a lot of bull."

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