Baltimore Cops Shoot Runaway Steer

A big steer escaped from a slaughterhouse in Baltimore this morning, but his final taste of freedom didn't last too long, reports the Baltimore Sun. Police shot and killed the 780-pound animal after getting calls from city dwellers surprised to see it trotting around their streets, reports the AP. Police say they had to shoot the steer after it became "increasingly aggressive," according to a post on the department's Facebook page. But the move isn't sitting well with all.

"I don't know whether the [animal] needed to be shot but I do know you shouldn't be firing out of a moving police car with pedestrians standing there," one witness tells the Sun. The department says it will investigate the incident. The animal was nothing if not determined: It had to leap a fence to escape the slaughterhouse, and police say it "vaulted" over the hood of one of their cars when it first got cornered. (This animal escape had a happier ending.)