Sedating a wild steer

[Mr Ix]

My father who recently passed away had a heard of 18 highlands. As he slowed down with age he let the cattle go, either to other breeders or to the dinner plate.
The final pair left was an old bull and a companion steer. The bull died last year after taking a tumble off the hillside and getting it's head stuck in a ditch, leaving just the steer.
The steer is wild, like crazy possessed wild, and no one can get near it. The stupid sod lost his tag a couple of years back with no one daring to attempt to fit the replacement.
The farm is soon to be up for sale and so the steer needs dealt with, preferably before anyone wants to check his credentials, and also obviously we can't re-home him until he's tagged again.

Options being talked about:
Paying the vet to come and tranquilize so we can tag it safely - pretty expensive for a beast that's not really worth the hassle/cost.
Taking it for a long walk down the field to catch up with his mate - cheap option.

or the last option and the reason I came here to ask; How many human sleeping pills would it take to get half a ton of beast to be sedated enough to be able to get near?
From my fathers illness over the years he amassed a fair collection of pills, and I guess we have about 50 sleepers.

I'm sure I'm not the first to consider this, I'm also gonna guess it's probably illegal and someone will put me right, but i thought I'd put it out there.

Thanks.

 

[Lofty1984]

Just get a marksman to put him down from a safe distance if he’s as nuts as you say it’s the best way no point passing the problem onto someone else

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Buy a big deep freezer and shoot it

 

[JSmith]

Shoot it, problem solved!! Who wants to rehome a wild highland?? For what it would come to cull, it’s not worth the aggravation

 

[TechWise]

If the beast is that aggessive that no one can get near it, then it's dangerous. If it injures a walker in the meantime, you're in trouble. If you succeed in sedating it, capturing it and selling it on, then you've just moved a tragedy waiting to happen onto someone else. Get in touch with a local abbatoir and vet to arrange things and get someone who knows what they're doing to shoot it in the field with a rifle, the vet bleeds it and signs it off and you take it into the abbatoir on a trailer.

 

[Fendt65]

Someone is going to get hurt,do the right thing with a rifle!.

 

[devonbeef]

My father who recently passed away had a heard of 18 highlands. As he slowed down with age he let the cattle go, either to other breeders or to the dinner plate.
The final pair left was an old bull and a companion steer. The bull died last year after taking a tumble off the hillside and getting it's head stuck in a ditch, leaving just the steer.
The steer is wild, like crazy possessed wild, and no one can get near it. The stupid sod lost his tag a couple of years back with no one daring to attempt to fit the replacement.
The farm is soon to be up for sale and so the steer needs dealt with, preferably before anyone wants to check his credentials, and also obviously we can't re-home him until he's tagged again.

Options being talked about:
Paying the vet to come and tranquilize so we can tag it safely - pretty expensive for a beast that's not really worth the hassle/cost.
Taking it for a long walk down the field to catch up with his mate - cheap option.

or the last option and the reason I came here to ask; How many human sleeping pills would it take to get half a ton of beast to be sedated enough to be able to get near?
From my fathers illness over the years he amassed a fair collection of pills, and I guess we have about 50 sleepers.

I'm sure I'm not the first to consider this, I'm also gonna guess it's probably illegal and someone will put me right, but i thought I'd put it out there.

Thanks.

Just get it shot quickly, kindest and safest thing all round, stupid to risk others selling it on .

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

Reading the o p sounds like this steer isn't young prime beef ?
Get someone you trust with a rifle and pay the knacker man to take it away
Who needs the hassle and expense to get a freezer full of chewy old beef

 

[nelly55]

Marksman,and in the freezer .I made the choice the other week,it was either she came back in freezer boxes or I left in a box.Boy the beef tastes good

 

[wrenbird]

Is this post serious? Someone joins this morning with something that sounds like a cock and bull tale, sounds iffy to me.

 

[Mr Ix]

Seems like the forum has spoken thank you, and the long walk is high on the list. Not a problem, my brother has a licenced gun.
I've no problem with putting him down, but I do with having to tell my mother her last beloved beast just expired suddenly.

It's a very isolated hill farm in the middle of nowhere, so no imediate danger to the public.

 

[Mr Ix]

Is this post serious? Someone joins this morning with something that sounds like a cock and bull tale, sounds iffy to me.

What's iffy about asking how many sleeping pills to sedate a cow?

 

[Sharpy]

What's iffy about asking how many sleeping pills to sedate a cow?

Possibly the fact the beast could then enter the food chain with a unlicensed drug in its system. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem but there are plenty of horse sedatives and painkillers that mean the treated horse is unfit for human consumption.

 

[Al R]

Seems like the forum has spoken thank you, and the long walk is high on the list. Not a problem, my brother has a licenced gun.
I've no problem with putting him down, but I do with having to tell my mother her last beloved beast just expired suddenly.

It's a very isolated hill farm in the middle of nowhere, so no imediate danger to the public.

Natural Causes you can tell her. Never watched Dog Soldiers?

 

[Sharpy]

Natural Causes you can tell her. Never watched Dog Soldiers?

Heart failure. The fact the cause of heart failure was high speed lead poisoning is incidental......

 

[wrenbird]

Cattle are herd animals, if your highland steer, be it real or imaginary, is on its own, then it’s not surprising it’s become unmanageable. If someone on here had told you the correct dose of human sleeping pills for a highland steer, how exactly were you hoping to administer them?
You say that you imagine that you not first to tranquillize cattle with sleeping pills (a bizarre notion in itself) and that it is probably illegal, but you expect someone on here to bite and tell you exactly how to do it.
Sorry, but I’m sticking to my first impression that this is a fishy fairytale.

 

[Jam Tomorrow]

Get it shot and then give yourself a slap for not sorting it out months ago

 

[Dry Rot]

Cattle are herd animals, if your highland steer, be it real or imaginary, is on its own, then it’s not surprising it’s become unmanageable. If someone on here had told you the correct dose of human sleeping pills for a highland steer, how exactly were you hoping to administer them?
You say that you imagine that you not first to tranquillize cattle with sleeping pills (a bizarre notion in itself) and that it is probably illegal, but you expect someone on here to bite and tell you exactly how to do it.
Sorry, but I’m sticking to my first impression that this is a fishy fairytale.

This ^^^^. A neighbour bought a half grown Highland stirk to join his small herd. He put it in a shed on arrival "to settle down". The stirk got out (I don't know how) and promptly got into some young forestry. I was called out to try to drive it home with the quad. That beast ignore everything and just headed in a straight line to some cattle about a mile away, jumping fences like a steeple chaser. They have minds of their own! Get it the company of a quiet old cattle beast and it might become manageable.

On the subject of drugs, life is full of surprises. Morphine in the correct dose will put you off to sleep (Mophius, the Roman god of sleep). Give it to a cat or a horse and it will become hyperactive! That's why vets go to college!

 

[valtraman]

Having witnessed a horrific attack by a cow on my father just last week don’t even contemplate doing anything with this beast . Pay a marksman or get a local gamekeeper to come right away and put it down from distance . The damage that beast can do to someone is unreal.

 

[Lofty1984]

Having witnessed a horrific attack by a cow on my father just last week don’t even contemplate doing anything with this beast . Pay a marksman or get a local gamekeeper to come right away and put it down from distance . The damage that beast can do to someone is unreal.

Hope he’s on the mend