Bull Escapes Slaughterhouse, Attacks Woman On Scooter
GIRARD, Pa. (AP) - A bull escaped as it was being unloaded at a slaughterhouse and rammed a woman on a motor scooter in northwestern Pennsylvania, state police said.
The bull was one of four bovines that escaped while being unloaded at McDonald Meats in Girard Township on Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. William Ramey told The Associated Press. The slaughterhouse is about 15 miles west of Erie.
Motor scooter rider Nicole Morton, 30, of nearby Millcreek Township, was riding with her husband and another woman when they saw the animals run across the road while they were stopped in traffic, according to the Erie Times-News.
"It looked like a calm bull at first, then suddenly it up and charged," Morton's husband Kevin, 34, said. "When it got in front of my wife, it just reared up and charged her. It jumped up into her and hit her in the face."
Nicole Morton was conscious and talking when she was taken by ambulance to UPMC Hamot hospital in Erie with unspecified injuries. A hospital spokeswoman could not immediately provide information on Morton's condition.
A woman who answered the phone at McDonald Meats told the AP, "It wasn't a bull and, no, we have no comment" before hanging up.
Ramey said police were standing by their account of the incident in a news release. He said company officials, apparently concerned about possible litigation, were already arguing at the scene with the workers who were unloading the animals about who was responsible for their escape.
"Cows, steers, bulls, it doesn't make a hill of beans of a difference," Ramey said when told of the company's comments. "The one in the road got loose and started charging. It was some sort of bovine - with horns."
The animals were going to be butchered, had they not escaped. Instead, police located the animals nearby and shot them to control the situation.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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