Cows still at large after fatal Highway 69 crash in January
Nearly two weeks after a fatal four-vehicle crash on Highway 69, it's estimated that seven cows set loose from a transport truck are still roaming free in the Britt, Ont., area.
On Jan. 28, a tractor-trailer hauling 77 cows was driving southbound when it clipped the blade of an oncoming plough truck.
That's when the tractor-trailer hit an oncoming minivan before hitting another transport head-on. Both transports hit a rock cut before being engulfed in flames.
Police estimated that about 40 of the cows died in the crash, leaving the other 37 wandering around the road and nearby bush.
Larry Olds, Britt's fire chief, told CBC News the cows "were travelling quite a ways north and south up the highway" the morning after the crash.
'An unfortunate situation'
In the days following the accident, police received several complaints of cattle running along the highway and obstructing traffic, according to OPP staff Sgt. Ron Campbell.
"The local trappers in the area there were looking after euthanizing the rest of the cattle that were on the loose," Campbell said, adding that some of the trappers will be keeping the meat. "The company [that owned the cows] had authorized their destruction as they weren't going to come get them," he said.
"It's an unfortunate situation but it was certainly necessary without any other alternatives to getting these cattle into captivity again."
Campbell said both police officers and local trappers are following hoof tracks in the snow trying to locate the animals that still haven't been found.
He can't say what the condition of the remaining animals is — whether they're starving, freezing or falling prey to other animals.
"Our last report were eight cattle in the Naiscoot Lake area," he said.
