AN EXCITING INCIDENT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2639, 22 October 1909, Page 4

AN EXCITING INCIDENT.

■WILD STEER RUNS AMOK

The dangerous steer which was referred to in the “Times” local columns as having tilted a cyclist and his machine off the road and through a fence at Matawhero on Wednesday, ran amok at the stock sales at Matawhero yesterday, and came very near being responsible for the death of two men and a stallion. The animal was sold at the sales, and while leaving the yards with a mob of bnllcoks for the abattoirs at 1 o’clock, furiously charged and tossed a man who was standing ta’king in the middle of the road some feet into the air. The savage brute continued its mad career, and next attacked Mr. J. C. Field’s hackney stallion, Cavalier, which was in charge of Mr. R. Quirke, and rolled the horse over into the ditch, its horn penetrating some inches into the fleshy part of the stallion’s hindquarter, near the hip. Mr Quirke, who retained his hold of the leading chain, was dragged under the stallion's feet, but fortunately escaped without serious injury. The unfortunate man whom the steer first attacked, however, did not escape so lightly. His clothing was badly torn, and he received such a severe shaking and bruising that he had to be taken home in a trap. The mad animal had injured one of its hand legs so badly in its furious rushes that it could scarcely walk, and a rifle was humanely procured and a couple of bullets put it beyond all possibility of doing further damage. The animal was one of the, most vicious ever seen on the flats, and it is fortunate that those it attacked got off as lightly as they did.