Call for humane practices after police car hit cow

Humane and safe methods must to be used to deal with escaped livestock on urban streets, a farmer's union said.

The comment from National Farmers' Union's livestock board chair David Barton came after a video of a police car ramming a cow on a Surrey street caused widespread outrage.

Surrey Police confirmed on Sunday the driver of the car had been removed from frontline duties.

Mr Barton said: "There has to be a protocol in place to humanely and safely deal with these situations."

The cow's owner had said the animal was recovering

He said that although he was "deeply shocked and disturbed" by the footage, he understood that officers had a responsibility to protect the public.

Mr Barton added: "The NFU is working with Surrey police, and other forces across the country, to help ensure this situation doesn’t happen again."

The video showed a police car hitting the calf on Friday night on a residential street in Staines-upon-Thames.

Surrey Police said the cow was being treated by a vet and was recovering. It had been reunited with her herd, the force added.

Surrey Police confirmed the driver of the car had been removed from frontline duties

The force previously said the matter had been referred to its professional standards department, and a voluntary referral would be made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp previously said police had unsuccessfully tried to contact local vets and identify the owner before the incident.

He added: "As well as our overriding duty to protect the public, the welfare of animals is important to us and we know people want answers about how this happened and what led up to it.

"I am committed to ensuring that we have a full understanding of what took place and why, and we will fully support any investigation."

Hugh Broom, NFU's South East livestock chairman, said while he recognised the situation looked "horrendous", officers' options were limited and they "probably did the right thing at the time".

He told BBC Radio Surrey that other options open to the force may have been shooting the cow or using a tranquiliser dart, though the latter would need proper training.

Mr Broom said the "perfect thing" would be a register of all farmers and animal owners in an area in order to be able to contact people in such a situation.