Patterico's Pontifications

11/22/2007

Stupid Excuses: The Cow Who Looked Like a Coyote

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 2:54 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A Michigan man who claims he was hunting coyotes may be charged for killing a neighbor’s pregnant cow:

A man says he shot a neighbor’s cow after mistaking it for a coyote. Authorities and the owner are skeptical.

The undersheriff in northern Michigan’s Benzie County says he doesn’t see how anyone could confuse a 1,400-pound pregnant cow with a coyote, which typically weighs between 20 and 45 pounds. And anyway, shooting coyotes is illegal during firearm deer season. Authorities asked the county prosecutor to bring charges against the shooter.

A 42-year-old man told authorities he was out to shoot coyotes near his Colfax Township home Saturday when he killed the cow, Undersheriff Rory Heckman told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a story published Wednesday. Heckman said the man then tried to drag the cow home.

“The part of his story he his holding to is he shot at a coyote. I don’t know how he hit a several-thousand pound cow mistaking it for a coyote,” Heckman said. The cow was named Hannah and had wandered away from its farm, about 205 miles northwest of Detroit.”

The cow’s owner suggests the shooter needs therapy if he thinks cows and coyotes look alike.

— DRJ

12 Responses to “Stupid Excuses: The Cow Who Looked Like a Coyote”

  1. Well, at least it had four legs!

    Not the first cow, horse, or human to be shot by a hunter thinking (I hesitate to use that word, but …) that they were shooting a pheasant, duck, goose, rat, chipmunk, squirrel, fox, deer, antelope, ….

    Had a neighbor who used to use red water paint to write “COW” on all of his milk cows come the start of pheasant season; he still lost one every couple of years.

    The idiots will be with you always.

    htom (412a17)

  2. Coyotes have udders now?

    chaos (9c54c6)

  3. Maybe the farmer should start painting COW on each of his animals

    krazy kagu (d982eb)

  4. How come we know the cow’s name but not the shooter’s?

    nk (09a321)

  5. The cow’s painted “C…O….W” in upstate New York are rampant.

    Al (b624ac)

  6. I really don’t think much of hunting coyotes just to kill’em anyways…..

    Sheep farmers, I can see, but a LOT of folks I know kill’em just to kill.

    Possible reasons the cows get shot
    My folks have a cattle ranch– the cows will let coyotes come right up inside of twenty feet of ’em to clean up the afterbirth.

    Foxfier (55235c)

  7. I used to live in upstate NY about 90 miles north of NYC.
    City and Jersey nitwits come up to the Catskills each and every year and they shoot everything that moves. Including each other. It made hunting a little more interesting. The only good part was that they made so much noise that you knew where they were so you could avoid them or at least keep a stand of trees between you and them.
    My buddy, a state trooper, did the NYS Thruway inspection at exit 19 where they check deer and bears for proper tags and whatnot.
    He told me about a guy who had a goat on his car, all dressed and ready for the butcher. The cop told him it was a goat, the guy kept saying, “Look at the horns!” as my buddy pulled the goat off the car.

    In that area, all farmers paint their livestock, including horses, cows, pigs and goats.

    Veeshir (5f9b87)

  8. This story from a local paper gives a few more details. It seems to me like the old joke about Texas ranchers: They ate their own beef only when they had dinner at their neighbors’.

    nk (09a321)

  9. NK,

    The local newspaper sure had fun with that story! It doesn’t help that his defense to one crime (theft) is that he was committing another one (poaching), but his big mistake was trying to drag the carcass home.

    DRJ (973069)

  10. The cow sounds like it was trespassing- she wandered 205 miles from her farm.

    jimboster (6e04e1)

  11. Maybe all he wanted was some fresh burger meat?

    It would be really funny if the guy has valid deer tags. Using the coyote story instead of a deer story while possessing valid tags, would really demonstrate his complete stupidity.

    I know we can’t use literacy tests anymore for voter registration; but, would it be too much to ask for some form of intelligence test before issueing a hunting license?

    Another Drew (758608)

  12. Read one a few years ago about some guy who shot a GOLDEN EAGLE and claimed he mistook it for a raven BUT RAVENS ARE PROTECTED IN UTAH Frankly someone should have gotten him a bird book so he would know the differnece say a PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF THE WEST

    krazy kagu (1f0194)


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