Police Dispatch

This week in animals you don't want to find in your yard

THAT'S BULL

FOOTHILLS AREA

APRIL 28, 12:40 A.M.

A local couple found a fully grown bull on their front porch in the middle of the night, and it apparently tried to attack the deputies who were sent to investigate, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.

The couple said they had been awakened by loud noises about midnight. When they opened their front door to see what was causing the ruckus, they found a large bull nosing around the front porch, where it appeared that the animal had knocked over some weights on a weight bench.

The husband pointed out hoof prints that he said the bull had left in the gravel of their landscaped front yard, as well as a sizable boulder that the bull had apparently pushed around. There were also two bushes in the yard whose leaves and branches appeared to have been chewed off. Deputies also saw large gouge marks on the couple's vehicles.

The couple said the bull had recently left their property, wandering back across the street, where it came from.

But just as they were telling that to deputies, the bull returned to the couple's yard and trotted quickly toward the couple and the deputies.

All of the humans fled to the side yard and watched as the bull trampled more bushes.

The bull eventually left the yard, and the deputies herded it into its corral across the street by using their patrol cars. The corral gate had been left open and the deputies, exploring further, noticed many other animals on the property, including dogs, chickens and goats. The skins from two recently killed goats were in plain view on the ground and the area around the house was piled high with animal feces.

As night neared morning, the bull's owner finally arrived home. Though she insisted she had closed the corral gate, she let deputies inside her home, where they saw—and smelled—lots of animal urine and feces.

The bull's owner was cited both for the criminal damage her bull allegedly caused and for her failure to clean up her animals' waste.