Missing steers go home on range
Git along, little doggie! Two missing steers have been rounded up in rural Langley
The two missing steers are a belted Galloway and a black angus.
Photograph by: Submitted photo , for Langley Advance
The two missing steers of South Langley have been rounded up.
On Dec. 10, Brandon Koch, a 14year-old 4-H member, fed his two 700-pound steers as normal and went to bed at his family's home near 230th Street and 30th Avenue.
The next morning, the barn door was open and the animals were gone, said his mother Kristina.
The Langley Advance reported on the puzzling search for the large animals - which the family thought might have escaped, but which might have been stolen [Cattle go missing, Dec. 13].
Thanks to a tip from a friend, the two animals were found Thursday, not far from their home. In fact, they were about five minutes' walk away, said Kristina, but they had managed to conceal themselves from the road.
"They were behind two or three fences in a field, I don't know how they got there," Kristina said.
After several days away from their barn, the cattle were a little tense, Kristina said, but the Angus was quickly rounded up after a short chase down 232nd Street left it cornered. The other steer, a belted Galloway, was a bit wilier.
It started jumping fences, ran down 232nd Street, and then through three yards.
Animal control staff from the Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS), an RCMP officer with a rifle, and a veterinarian all came out to help capture the last steer.
After it was tranquilized by the vet, the steer was finally hauled back home.
"They seem to be fine," said Kristina.
It's actually not uncommon for cows and other large farm animals to briefly escape, or in some cases be stolen in Langley and the rural areas of the Fraser Valley.
LAPS, the RCMP, and local firefighters have all helped with large animal rescues and roundups in the past, and some cattle manage to elude capture repeatedly, running across highways or hiding in wooded areas.
