deer

If there’s one thing the NYPD is used to it is dealing with a whole bunch of bull. But this was different.

According to media accounts, a “rogue bull” that recently escaped from a slaughterhouse in Queens, N.Y., led cops on a “wild chase” that ended badly — for the bull.

Footage shot from a TV news helicopter showed just how wily and determined the bull was. Just when it seemed the police had him trapped, the bull managed to elude them. At one point, he dodged an officer who had “jumped atop an emergency response vehicle.” At other times, the bull showed its prowess by “ducking under yellow caution tape” as it “galloped down the middle of a street and onto a sidewalk.”

I suppose it would be a stretch to call it a “police-involved shooting.” But the animal, who evaded law enforcement and civilians during its mad romp through the Jamaica and South Ozone Park neighborhoods, reportedly had several tranquilizer darts in its flank by the time the chase ended.

The bull was alive when the pursuit ended in someone’s back yard. However, he died while he was being transported to an unknown destination. The cause of death was “not clear,” according to published reports.

The urban jungle

This wasn’t the first time an animal has given the NYPD a run for its money.

“Cows escaped slaughterhouses at least twice last year, in January and April,” according to media accounts. But I’m happy to report that one of those cases had a happy ending. The escapee got a second chance at life when it ended up at an animal shelter owned by comedian John Stewart.

“In December, a white-tailed buck who was granted a last-minute reprieve from euthanasia after a days-long back and forth between the city and state died in Harlem,”  an NBC-TV affiliate reported. “The one-antlered buck died while state officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation were arranging relocation. The city blamed the state for its death; the state blamed the city.”