WHATELY — A bull that escaped from an auction Tuesday afternoon was put down by its owner out of concern for public safety on Wednesday.
The decision was made after unsuccessful attempts to find and wrangle the bull, an animal that police described as aggressive.
The bull couldn’t be found Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning, the police had received multiple calls from people who had spotted the animal on Long Plain Road. As a precautionary measure, administrators at the nearby elementary school did not let children out for recess.
At around 10 a.m., the bull was found in the wooded area behind the elementary school. Even with the owner of the bull present, police failed to wrangle the animal.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years — you always run into rabid animals, but not a public safety concern like this,” Whately Police Chief James Sevigne said.
The owner decided it was best to put down his bull with a rifle. He followed state law on how to put down the animal and handle the carcass, Sevigne said.
Since the bull was near a school and aggressive, Sevigne said police would have handled the situation similarly to protect the public.
“If we got to the point where the bull had taken off and jeopardized someone’s safety, we would’ve taken action anyway,” Sevigne said.
It was an unusual occurrence for Sevigne, who said that the Northampton Cooperative Auction Association, which holds a livestock auction on Tuesdays, typically does not see this kind of trouble.
“It was just an unfortunate thing,” Sevigne said. “It wasn’t something intentional.”
Joshua Solomon can be reached at jsolomon@recorder.com.