Two steers en route to the slaughterhouse made a last-ditch attempt at freedom, busting out of their cattle trailer, halting noon-hour traffic on the Trans Canada Highway and leading police and firefighters on a frantic chase Tuesday.
Saanich farmer Doug Alberg was driving five head of cattle to the slaughterhouse in Duncan when a pin that secures the trailer’s gate came loose, allowing the two bovines to bolt.
Motorists on the highway were startled to see two black steers roaming free near Helmcken Road.
About a dozen Saanich police and RCMP officers and firefighters from Saanich and View Royal flocked to the area to help corral the animals which found their way to Jeneece Place by the Victoria General Hospital. One was herded into a truck but the other wouldn’t go so easily.
The second steer ran down the off-ramp and across four lanes of the highway, over a concrete barrier and onto a grassy patch on the south side of Helmcken Road.
All southbound lanes of the highway were blocked until police and firefighters were able to lasso the second steer near Portage Inlet.
David Farmer, who lives on Bute Street, saw police with ropes chasing the steer across the road until it ran across his property and into the backyard, where it eventually jumped into the water.
“He slowed himself down going into the water,” Farmer said. “There were at least 10 police officers trying to hold him and he was just throwing them around. He had incredible strength.”
Police, with the assistance of Alberg, were eventually able to get the rogue steer back in the trailer.
“It was a real affair out there today,” Farmer said.
This is not the first time Alberg’s cattle have made headlines.
Alberg runs a suburban cattle feedlot at 1516 Mount Douglas Cross Rd. which has been the subject of smell complaints. Hundreds of residents have signed a petition lobbying the District of Saanich to re-zone the property to allow it to be redeveloped into a subdivision but so far the district has rejected that because the property is part of the Agricultural Land Reserve.
