LSU says cattle panicked, pushed through gate

ST. GABRIEL - Cattle that wandered onto a highway and were struck and killed by three trucks likely panicked during a storm and pushed through an LSU Agricultural Center metal pasture gate, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

St. Gabriel police and Iberville Parish sheriff's deputies sent to the accident scene last week said they believe someone left a gate open, giving the herd a chance to escape.

But Frankie Gould, the AgCenter's director of communications, said that's not the case.

Gould estimated that each of the dead calves weighed around 700 pounds.

The Reproductive Biology Center's pastures that house as many as 500 cows, horses and sheep are secured by metal pipe gates with traditional latches, she said.

Researchers believe the 63 calves that escaped probably were frightened by last Thursday's rainstorms, Gould said.

"If the cows rush or push on the gate, it can pop open," she said. "That's the best we can figure about what happened."

She estimated the collective value of the 17 cattle killed in the incident to be around $15,000.

"These kinds of things happen with animals," Gould said "We have to try to make sure we have standard operating procedures in place to take care of any kind of emergency or situations like this. This was one of those things that couldn't be prevented because the animals broke through the gate."

St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambeau said the cattle wandered about a half-mile from the pasture before they made their way onto La. 30, where several of them clustered together.

Sheriff's Maj. Johnny Blanchard said two pickups traveling about three-quarters of a mile apart hit and killed multiple cattle around 2 a.m. An 18-wheeler hit the herd later, killing several more.

Deputies put down some injured cattle that were lying in the road suffering, he said.

The incident caused the closure of La. 30 for several hours while authorities worked to upright the tractor-trailer, which had overturned in a ditch after hitting the cows.

The 18-wheeler's driver was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries, Blanchard said.

Authorities worked through the night rounding up the remaining cattle that had scattered up and down the roadway as far as a mile-and-a-half from where the vehicles struck the animals, Blanchard said.