A Florida man allegedly shot his neighbor’s pregnant cow several times after it wandered onto his property, according to the local sheriff.
Hung Trinh, 54, allegedly shot the 2-year-old calf five times — in its gut, chest, and rear leg — and was quickly arrested for animal cruelty, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.
When deputies arrived, the cow was still alive, but struggling to stand or walk, according to a heartbreaking video shared by the sheriff’s office.
The mom-to-be was rushed to a local veterinarian, who determined the cow had to be euthanized due to its injuries, the sheriff said.
Trinh was reportedly enraged by his neighbor’s livestock jumping over the fence into his yard after multiple prior occurrences and repeatedly threatened to shoot any animals that entered his property, the sheriff’s office said.
His neighbor raises many of the animals for commercial purposes, including the calf Trinh allegedly shot.
Police searched Trinh’s property and recovered a .22 caliber gun. He was taken into custody and charged with animal cruelty and grand theft of a commercial farm animal.
“There will be accountability for taking your frustrations out on innocent animals, in this case, multiple felonies and jail time,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said. “We know how much these animals mean to our farming community, and we will not tolerate these actions.”
Trinh was booked on a $100,000 bond. His arraignment is set for June 16.
In spite of their hulking size, cows have a confounding tendency of winding up exactly where they don’t belong.
In 2019, one cow escaped a meat market in Connecticut only to become trapped and eventually slaughtered in a nearby Home Depot parking lot.
Another cow in Poland leapt out of a truck while in transit to a slaughterhouse and, somehow, swam to a nearby island. She took shelter and was even hailed as a hero until she was rounded up during a rescue attempt and died “from stress.”
The post Florida man allegedly shot neighbor’s pregnant cow 5 times, riddling it with bullets appeared first on New York Post.
