N.H. couple have beef with police for Tasering cow

When Pelham police officers arrived on the scene, they did the only thing they could think of: They fired their Taser guns.

Her owner was not pleased.

“It was almost like [the police] wanted to punish the cow for ruining their afternoon,’’ said Doug Hirsch. The shots were unnecessary, said Hirsch, as the cow was already headed back to her pen when the guns were fired.

Hirsch’s girlfriend, Wendy Bordeleau, filed a complaint with the Pelham Police Department, arguing that officers used unnecessary means in their effort to keep the animal under control.

“Because our cow was subjected to repeated and prolonged shock, I seriously question the competence of the Pelham Police Department and their indiscriminate and brutal use of their weapons,’’ Bordeleau wrote in a letter to the Pelham Police Department, which she also sent to the Pelham-Windham News. “It is morally reprehensible that these officers would abuse an animal this way that is not causing any immediate harm to anyone.’’

The Tasers were fired three times, Sergeant Michael Pickles said. The first two shots were ineffective, but the last shot sent a jolt of electricity into her body. The heifer, who Hirsch said weighs about 500 pounds, barely flinched, however, and kept walking, eventually making its way into a temporary pen, where residents were able to lasso her.

“We told them to stop to Tasering the cow, because it wasn’t doing any good. They were just scaring the thing,’’ Hirsch said.

He said he and Bordeleau had purchased the cow to help keep the grass trimmed in their backyard.

Police maintain that the heifer — now known as Houdini because of her dramatic escape — was galloping from one field to another, plowing through fences and crossing the street multiple times. Officers set up a barricade to prevent vehicles from entering the area. The cow nearly injured herself and nearby motorists, said Pickles, and the officers decided that the Taser was the best way to get the animal under control quickly.