Residents of southern Massachusetts can rest easy: The eight bulls that jumped a fence and escaped from a mall rodeo Sunday afternoon have been located, the North Attleboro Fire Department announced Monday night.
“The remaining bull has been safely captured,” the department said on its Facebook page, ending a search that had lasted about a day and a half.
No one was injured in the escape, which happened around 12:30 p.m. Sunday. North Attleboro firefighters working a rodeo at Emerald Square Mall reported seeing eight bulls escape from their pen, the fire chief said in a previous statement.
The herd managed to “cross the parking lot and jump over a fence surrounding the perimeter of the event,” the chief said.
Video filmed by a bystander and broadcast on local NBC showed the bulls galloping away as people in the crowd screamed and ran for safety, jumping onto parked vehicles.
The bulls then fled south towards the woods behind a restaurant and brewery.
One bull was captured immediately after the escape. Firefighters and officers from the Attleboro Police Department and Massachusetts Environmental Police began searching for the other seven.
Chris Mooney told NBC he saw the bulls coming down his street near Attleboro, about 40 miles south of Boston.
“As soon as I got out and looked out, I was like, ‘These aren’t horses, these are literally bulls,’ and ‘Oh my God,’” he told the outlet. “Two of them were laying down, one was moving the fence trying to get out, and the rest of them were just sitting there.”
About four hours after the escape, search team members found six bulls trapped behind a fence at a home in Attleboro.
Workers herded the six bulls into a trailer “without incident,” the fire chief said.
He and a North Attleboro spokeswoman said rodeo workers were searching for the missing bull Monday and that town workers were not involved.
The rodeo, a one-day event at the mall, is under investigation for the incident, Chief Coleman said. It’s unclear exactly what organization put on the rodeo, but The Boston Globe identified the group as Rancho El Milagro, which did not immediately respond to inquiries Monday.
The mall also did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Claire Moses contribution to the report
