Cowboys and cops helped 600 heads of cattle navigate alligator-infested floodwaters during a 7-mile, old-fashioned drive through a drenched Texas town.
Some 600 bovines were forced to settle onto a 50-acre patch of one ranch outside Dayton after extreme rains forced the swollen Trinity River over its banks and shrunk the Liberty Bell Ranch from its 1,800-acre size.
By 7 a.m. Sunday, the race was on to rescue the cattle, which were penned in by the swirling waters filled with hungry alligators waiting to pounce. Deer and other wildlife were also confined to the grassy patch as waters continued to rise in the area, some 40 miles northeast of Houston.
Cowboys atop horses, and some on boats, teamed up with law enforcement to drive the herd to a nearby rail yard so the animals could wait safely on dry ground for the floodwaters to recede.
“It’s really a taste of the Old West coming back in here,” Ricky Brown told KHOU-TV. “Everybody just wants to be a part of this. This is something that hasn’t happened in probably 200 years.”
All told, the animals were a $1 million investment for the ranch owner, who fears it could be weeks before the creatures can return home to the ranch, KPRC-TV reported.
Some of the smaller calves were put in airboats or flown to new homes, but still more perished in the water. Exact numbers of cattle lost were not immediately available, but about 200 made it to their final destination.
Some cattle were spooked by helicopters swarming above, and returned to their island refuge before joining the herd on the march.
Once through the water, about 150 cowboys and cops led the herd to Highway 90 through Dayton, where residents lined up in trucks to watch the drive.
“To me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Aaron Privett, who watched with his four daughters and fiancee, told KHOU. “You get to see something you don’t see every day.”
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