
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 5, 1995                   TAG: 9508070050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOLTING BOVINES BLOCK TRAFFIC ON INTERSTATE 81

Four Botetourt County cows, apparently testing the theory that the grass is always greener on the other side, got loose and hampered traffic Friday evening on Interstate 81 near Troutville.

It took the state police, Botetourt County sheriff's deputies and animal control officers to corral two of them, but a pair of the rogue bovines escaped into a thicket.

"They were in the road, in the median, on the roadside, all over," said Trooper C.E. Hershman.

Traffic was blocked on the highway as the animals continually darted one direction and then another, the sheriff's office said.

After about two hours, two of the four white charlais cows succumbed to efforts to herd them into a nearby field, where they remained Friday night.

The sheriff's office still isn't sure who owns the cows.

And the two that got away?

Late Friday night, they were still on the lamb.

by CNB