The 800-pound steer had been headed for the slaughterhouse.
A steer that was on its way to becoming steaks and hamburger bolted from a Texas butcher and led police on a lumbering chase down city streets, authorities said.
“It kind of escaped,” Sgt. Jason Hayes of the Weatherford Texas Police Department told InsideEdition.com Monday.
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The 800-pound bovine ran from Hamilton Meats and eluded capture for hours, police said. After cops chased it through downtown intersections, the butcher’s owners called in professional cowboys.
Two horse-riding men swinging lassos eventually nabbed the animal on Main Street, near an elementary school, after pursuing it for nearly three miles.
"I just run up there and thank God, everybody stopped [and] seen me coming," wrangler Blake Davies told the Weatherford Democrat. "I came blowing out that intersection right there near Walmart... I was going so fast and so was that cow."
A police car was damaged by the steer.
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The animal was taken the butcher’s ranch, where “he got a stay of execution," Hayes said.
A male employee who declined to be named told the local paper the steer was no longer considered prime meat.
"Once you’ve chased an animal for two-and-a-half miles, throw(n) ropes over it, run police cars into it — it’s not very good to eat," the man said.
Watch: Sheriff Uses Lasso to Catch Cow on Highway
