It took four cowboys, three dogs and a pack of dog chow to finally wrangle two feral cows who had been on the lam in Oklahoma for two years.
The crew chased the Black Angus cattle across 19 miles over two hours last week until the cows grew tired enough to be roped in and carried off to safety.
The capture put an end to the pair’s two-year reign of terror on Brenda Stapleton’s Tulsa County property, which they seemingly called home after surviving a truck collision on a nearby road in 2022.
“They’re beautiful. They just can’t be in our yard,” Stapleton told 2 News.
The giant cows turned up on Stapleton’s property in 2022, shortly after a cattle trailer overturned on I-244, freeing 90 cows.
While most were captured in the hours after the accident, the two black beauties made themselves comfortable in Stapleton’s yard, frequently munching on her grass and leaving large cow patties in their wake.
The mischievous duo is also known to creep up near her windows and has even unplugged her septic tank on numerous occasions, which forces waste to flow back into the home.
“That’s all that it could have been,” she explained. “There is tall grass right by there. You could tell where they had been pulling grass, and I guess they caught the cord and pulled it.”
Other than the nuisance, Stapleton stressed they posed a safety issue — the cows could get hit by a passing motorist unable to discern their dark coat in the night.
The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office said have repeatedly tried to shoo the beasts away but exhausted their efforts.
Instead, they suggested Stapleton hire professional cowboys, which only further enraged the homeowner: “Who has money for that? It shouldn’t be my responsibility.”
Fortunately, a crew of wrangling hobbyists came to her rescue last week after watching her plead her case in an interview with 2 News the week prior.
Bill Inhofe said he was “shocked” that the cows were still wreaking havoc in the area — his business, Sooner Emergency Services, had worked the 2022 wreck and he assumed the cows that weren’t recaptured had died in the wild.
That’s when he and three other cowboys, along with three dogs, set out to fix Stapleton’s problem.
They left out dog feed for the cows before setting the canines to track the scent.
“When they find the cows, the dogs are yelping, so the cowboys can look on their phone and know right where that cow is,” Inhofe explained.
“They break it out of the brush, throw a rope on it and get it in the trailer.”
Although she spent two years trying to rid herself of the cattle, she said she’ll miss seeing them grazing in her community.
“I’m sad to see them go,” she said. “I got used to talking to them and trying to befriend them. I’m disappointed I didn’t get to.”
Inhofe has taken the cows to his ranch, where he plans on calming them down until they readjust to captivity after their two years of freedom. Then, he said he would most likely sell them.