A chase like a 7-hour long movie! Escaping from the barn, the Angus cows drove the villagers crazy.

In the district of Pasinler in Erzurum, 26 Angus breed bulls that escaped from the barn were captured by municipal officials after a 7-hour chase, by shooting them with tranquilizer darts and rifles. The villagers, who ran for kilometers, were occasionally knocked down by the bulls' horn blows. Two bulls died during the hours-long chase.

BULLS WERE INDIVIDUALLY SEDATED

Thousands of Angus breed bulls imported from Uruguay last week were brought to Mersin by ship. Adem Aktaş and Abdulmuttalip Aktaş, who purchased 276 of these bulls, brought the animals to their barn in the rural Kevenlik neighborhood of Pasinler district in Erzurum with the truck they loaded them onto. 26 of the Angus bulls escaped from the barn that was accidentally left open by the shepherds. Aktaş brothers and the neighborhood residents, who ran after them in the countryside for hours but were unsuccessful in catching them, asked for help from the 'Sacrifice Capture Team' affiliated with the Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality Agricultural Services Directorate. The teams that arrived in the area quickly sedated the bulls one by one by shooting them with tranquilizer darts.

VILLAGERS WERE KNOCKED DOWN BY HORN BLOWS

The sedated bulls were loaded onto vans by the villagers and taken to the barn. Some of the Angus bulls, who fainted and couldn't be collected, regained consciousness and escaped again. The villagers sometimes threw lassos like cowboys to catch them. The bulls knocked down some villagers with their horn blows. Those who covered kilometers to catch the Angus bulls were provided with water by vehicles that frequently came. Some of the Angus bulls also mixed with the herd of cows grazing in the area. The officials also rendered them ineffective with tranquilizer darts here. The cows attacked the villagers who caught the bull. The shepherds scared the cows away with their sticks.

2 BULLS DIED

Abdulmuttalip Aktaş, who said that they chased the escaped Angus bulls for kilometers in the scorching heat since early morning, stated, "The animals escaped from the barn at 08.00. We tried everything but couldn't catch them. We asked for help from the municipality and they sent the 'Sacrifice Capture Team'. They shot and sedated them with rifles that shoot tranquilizer darts. While loading the sedated ones into the vehicles, we ran after them to catch them and we were exhausted. We had 276 animals, 26 of them escaped. We have caught 24 of them now, 2 of them had their hearts stopped and died during this chase," he said.

"WE RAN FOR HOURS"

Suat Alkanat from Kevenlik neighborhood, who said that they asked for help from surrounding villages to catch the escaped bulls, said, "We have been chasing these animals for about 6-7 hours. These animals that are fed openly escaped from our barn. We tried to catch them in the field. We asked for help from the surrounding villages, and thanks to them, they helped us. The teams from the metropolitan municipality's animal shelter came, without them, it would not have been possible to catch them," he said.