Owner unhappy after killing of runaway Littleton bull
A bull that escaped from a Littleton livestock auction last week was killed on Sunday, according to police.
The bull ran off from the Farmer’s Livestock Auction and Market Exchange on Tuesday and was spotted in nearby towns, including Ayer and Groton, in the following days.
The bull turned up in Littleton again around 5:30 p.m. Sunday, on Great Road near Janes Drive, according to a statement from police. When police arrived it had moved off the street, and officials contacted the animal’s owner, Terry Den Besten.
Before Den Besten got there, the bull started to head back to Great Road, police said.
Police shot the bull twice out of concern that a driver might crash into the animal and get seriously injured, the statement said. A driver had almost hit the bull when it was on Great Road on Saturday night, police said.
The bull was only wounded by the police shots. When Den Besten arrived, he shot and killed the bull.
The police statement said he killed the bull “out of concern for public safety,’’ but Den Besten explained that he had no choice.
“There was no saving it at that point,’’ he said in an interview on Sunday night. “It was suffering.’’
A spokeswoman for the Littleton police did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday night about the discrepancy.
Den Besten said he had authorized environmental police to tranquilize the animal when it was spotted on Wednesday, but was told that police are not allowed to tranquilize domestic animals.
“There was no reason for it,’’ he said in the interview. “It could have been tranquilized. But this liberal state won’t allow it.’’
Den Besten, a Raynham resident who had just purchased the bull at the livestock auction it ran away from, has not yet paid for the now-dead animal. He declined to share what he agreed to pay for the bull, but said the animals typically sell for between $1,000 and $1,500.
“This decision did not come lightly,’’ Littleton Police Chief Matthew King said of the shooting in the statement. “Littleton Police and the bull’s owner acted out of concern for people in the neighborhood and drivers in the area.’’
Den Besten decried the hubbub that social media users and media organizations had created around the bull’s escape — a Twitter account dedicated to the bull was created after the escape. He also criticized the death of the bull.
“This state allowed an innocent, domestic animal to be killed when it could have been tranquilized,’’ he said. “I lost a beautiful bull.’’
