UPDATED: Bull put down after chasing students at Dayville School

Published 5:25 pm Thursday, January 25, 2024

DAYVILLE — Students and staff did not expect to start their day with an errant bull roaming around Dayville School last Thursday, but that’s what was happening when Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley responded to the scene.

McKinley said he responded to a report of a loose bull at the school Thursday morning. 

Dayville School Superintendent and Principal Davida Irving said the bull was roaming around the school around School House Drive and was seen at a school bus parking lot, separate from the main parking lot in front of the school, and on the lawn of her home which is next to the school. 

“It was reported to me the bull was roaming around the school and in order to make sure our students and staff were safe, the Sheriff’s Office was called,” said Dayville School Superintendent and Principal Davida Irving.

No one was cited in the incident.

“No one got close and it never hurt anybody,” McKinley said. “A few people got their heart rate up from it.”

McKinley said the bull, a 900 to 1,000-pound animal with seven-inch horns, was eventually cornered and was put down.

“The bull was put down in an area away and out of sight from the children,” and not on school grounds, Irving said.

McKinley said such events in the county are rare, but livestock do get loose.

“It happens, but rarely do they get out and start chasing kids around a school,” McKinley said. “The only time it turns into an issue is if it’s a major nuisance, and this bull was becoming a nuisance.”

Irving said the incident with the bull has never happened before in the past and was not a recurring issue.

“I think it’s a one time thing,” she said. “We live in a very rural community and many families have cows, horses and other animals and they do occasionally get out. People are pretty good at figuring out how to get them back home.”