Who remembers the runaway cow of 2013?

Back in March 2013, Grantham briefly made headlines up and down the country, and not for a reason many people round here look back on fondly.

It started quietly enough. Just before 3pm on Monday 25 March, police had a report of a cow loose near Belton Lane. A Belgian blue had got out of a field, and over the next couple of hours it made its way through the residential streets, growing more frightened and harder to contain as it went. Officers followed it, roads were affected, and a small crowd gathered to watch, which only unsettled the animal further.

The RSPCA and the animal’s owner were both consulted, and sedation was among the options considered. But by around 5.20pm, with the cow in the grounds of Belton Lane Community Primary School, armed officers decided it posed too great a risk to the public and shot it dead. The pupils and most staff had already left for the day.

Four shots were fired, and all four hit. Police later confirmed the animal survived the first two.

It’s the sort of detail that stuck with people, and the story travelled a long way. The national press picked it up within hours, and the coverage was not kind to Lincolnshire Police. The Mirror ran “If it moos, shoot it: Fury as police marksmen kill runaway cow”. The Daily Express went with “Outrage as lost cow is shot dead in front of primary school”. The Independent reported “Anger after ‘aggressive’ lost cow is shot dead by police”, noting the force had been “labelled heavy-handed”. By the following day ITV, the Yorkshire Post and others were reporting that police had come out to “defend” the killing after a public outcry.

The force did defend it. Superintendent Phil Vickers, who coordinated the operation, said it was “regrettable and sad”, but that everything had been tried to capture the animal before it became “increasingly distressed, aggressive and unpredictable”, and that public safety had been paramount throughout. In a rural county, police said, they deal with dozens of loose-animal incidents a year without them ending this way, but this one was in a built-up area, and there the preservation of human life had to come first.

Thirteen years on, it’s still a story that stirs strong feelings for a lot of people who remember it. Who else recalls that afternoon?