• BJ LEWIS - Victoria Advocate
• Originally published May 6, 2008 at 12:13 p.m., updated May 6, 2008 at 12:13 p.m.

A simple trip to Edna to take cattle to market turned out to be anything but simple for one man Sunday afternoon.

A tire on his trailer had a blowout, his trailer overturned, the cows got loose, a police officer was gored and one of the cows had to be shot.

“I was coming from out there in the Nursery area, where my pastures are,” Glen Villafranca said. “I had just got on the loop from the access road. I had a blowout.”

In his rearview mirror, Villafranca saw the trailer start to fishtail. He pulled to the right trying to get off the road and when he did the trailer flipped onto its side.

The wreck occurred on the southbound roadway of Loop 463, pretty much in front of Kamin’s Furniture, Sgt. Sam Eyre, with the Victoria Police Department, said.

Two officers responded to incident, Eyre said. At that time, three of the cows had gotten out and two others were pinned under the wreckage of the trailer.

“One of the officers had called for assistance from animal control to put the animals down. They felt they were suffering,” Eyre said.

One of the cows got clear of the wreckage and charged at one of the officers. The officer, not having anywhere to run, grabbed hold of the horns to protect himself.

“The cow then backed off the officer and went toward another officer, who drew his service weapon and shot it several times as it charged at him,” Eyre said. “That officer then fell to the ground and the cow gored him for a brief period of time then backed off and continued to run around in that area of Kamin Furniture.”

Other officers arrived to assist, Eyre said. Another officer felt the cow was a danger and because it had been shot several times, needed to be dealt with in a different way.

“So he went ahead and got his AR-15. No one could get close enough with a shotgun to the cow, which is what we would normally do for something like that. The officer was able to put the cow down.”

Villafranca was relieved there were no other injuries from the accident or with the cows getting loose.

“If it had happened when I was on the highway going to Edna, it could have been much worse,” he said. “The police officers responded appropriately and protected the public. I have nothing but good things to say about the police responding and helping out.”

Villafranca was able to get the remaining three cows to Edna Monday morning to be sold.

“It’s one of those things that happens. When you’re in Texas and you have cattle, when you have to transport them it’s the chance you take,” he said. “It looked a lot worse than it was from the cows running around.”

Bj Lewis is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6535 or bjlewis@vicad.com.

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