Update: The last of the bulls was safely captured Monday. An earlier version of this story follows.
This is no bull: First responders in a Massachusetts city had to exercise some impromptu roundup skills when eight bulls escaped from a rodeo being held in the parking lot of a mall in North Attleboro on Sunday.
Video posted online captured the moment when the bulls escaped from the rodeo at the Emerald Square Mall. The animals charged through the crowded parking lot, knocked down fencing, bumped against a tent and rumbled toward busy U.S. Highway 1. They eventually headed for some nearby woods for short-lived freedom.
The North Attleboro Fire Department issued a warning: These rodeo bulls weren't playing around.
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"Community members should exercise extreme caution and not approach any bulls,” the agency said.
North Attleboro's fire chief says firefighters were working a detail a detail at the rodeo at 999 S. Washington Street when they witnessed the eight bulls escape from their pen and flee into the woods behind BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse around 1:30 p.m.
No one was hurt during the breakout.
One bull was caught shortly after escaping, the fire department said. North Attleboro Fire and Police, along with Massachusetts Environmental Police, searched for the remaining seven. New England Rodeo members in Norton and members from the rodeo at the mall also assisted with search efforts.
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Many were shocked by what they saw Sunday, and took out their cell phones as the bulls took off down Route 1. But perhaps no one was more shocked than Attleboro resident Chris Mooney who saw the bulls walk down his street and through his yard.
“As soon as I stepped out and I looked out there I said those aren’t horses, those are literally bulls and oh my god,” he said. “Two of them were laying down and another was budging the fence trying to get out, and the other ones were just sitting there.”
Mooney and his two boys stayed inside and watched from a safe distance.
According to the fire department, six bulls were found stuck behind a fence at a home on Prescott Street in Attleboro around 4:30 p.m. The search team members were able to safely corral all six into a trailer without further incident.
Neighbors watched as rodeo employees worked to get the bulls into a trailer.
"At first I just felt bad for the bulls. I’m like – they escaped for a reason," said Gee Sounthonevat.
Overall, people were happy to see the animals unharmed and taken away.
"They had a fence and they corralled them into the trailer and that was it,” Sounthonevat said.
While seven of the eight were corralled by late Sunday afternoon, one of them is still on the lam, firefighters said. First responders were still combing the streets for that remaining rogue bull.
The Festival Rodeo at the Emerald Square Mall -- a one-day event -- was shut down, officials said. How the bulls escaped was under investigation.
