From staff reports:

King County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men July 5 after they were found dragging or pulling a live bull with their car.

The two men described the bull as “stubborn” and said he didn’t want to be moved to a new pasture.

The sheriff office received several 911 calls about 4:30 p.m. from citizens reporting a 1989 Buick Century was “dragging a cow with a rope” in the 4200 block of S. Star Lake Road in unincorporated King County between Federal Way and Auburn.

Deputies found the car and a rope around the bull’s neck, attached to the “B” pillar of the car. The cow was lying in the roadway on his stomach, with all four legs splayed outward. There were open bleeding wounds around the hooves and legs.

Deputies talked with a witness who said the car was pulling the bull down the roadway with the rope cinched up around its neck in a slipknot. He said the bull was obviously in distress, strongly resisting as it was pulled down the street causing hoof and leg injuries, until it collapsed where deputies found it.

The driver, age 75, and the passenger, age 57, said they were moving the cow to a nearby pasture, and said this is how they always move this cow because “he is stubborn.” The passenger went on to say the cow wasn’t hurt and added, “You have to be like that with cows.”

Based on statement from the men and drag marks on the pavement, Deputies estimate the bull was pulled along for about half a mile.

Deputies found bloody streaks on the asphalt where the bull was pulling back on the rope. One of the streaks was about 20 feet long.

The cow was turned over to the Washington State Animal Response Team for safekeeping. They brought a trailer and administered medicine to relieve the animal’s pain.

Both men were booked into the King County Jail for investigation of animal cruelty in the first degree.