By Mitchell Clarke
A cow affectionately named Clyde who caused peak hour chaos on the Monash is set to spend the rest of his life in lush green paddocks.
Traffic was brought to a halt as authorities tried to coerce the rogue bovine away from a certain death near Clyde Road at 6.30am on Friday 11 October.
Almost three hours later, wildlife carers were able to put a rope around the cow and secure it to a fence before loading it onto a trailer just before 10am.
He’s now recovering in the hands of a wildlife carer in Emerald as authorities launch an investigation as to how Clyde ended up running along the busy freeway.
The theory that he jumped from a truck on its way to an abattoir is “quite likely” but it’s still too early for that to be confirmed.
A Warriors 4 Wildlife spokesperson told the Gazette the cow suffered quite a lot of bruising and bleeding from the wild adventure.
“We’re confident he’ll make a full recovery, if he had any serious injuries he’d likely be down by now,” she said.
An eyewitness who drove past the scene reported the animal looking “miserable and confused”.
“He was just stood at the fence with the police behind him yelling at motorists. His eyes were closed and he had blood on him,” he said.
“There were obviously a lot of motorists keen to see what was going on.
“Hopefully the authorities do the right thing and allow the animal to live a happy life on a sanctuary.”
Traffic controller Rickii Hard was the first on scene and called VicRoads immediately.
“The police thought it wasn’t well but I thought it just seemed tired, like it had been on a mission to get to where it was,” he said.
He hoped the animal wouldn’t be destroyed claiming it looked like it just needed a “good feed and some rest”.
“I could feel the vibe it had been through some stress to get to where it was. Not to mention the stress of where it was and the traffic picking up.”
The incident resulted in commuter chaos with motorists reporting the drive from Pakenham to Officer took almost an hour.
Clyde will remain at the safe haven until he makes a full recovery, when the search for his original owners will begin.
