Runaway cows land farmer in jail

A Canadian farmer is fighting a conviction for drink driving, insisting that he had to drive while inebriated in order to catch his herd of runaway cattle.

William Virtue Millar, of Alberta in Canada, said he had drank five or six beers with his brother before going to bed one night in October 2012, as reported by the Toronto Sun. 

However he was awoken a short time later to the sound of cows, quickly realising his herd of Black Angus cattle were on the loose.

Alone and with no phone, Millar chased after the herd of cows in the hope of preventing them from reaching the highway adding that if a motorist had hit one of the 2,000 pound cows, it would be like “hitting a wall”.

A court heard how Millar had parked behind the cattle and herded them into an adjacent field and closed the gate, before passing out from exhaustion in his truck. A police officer later found the farmer, slumped over the wheel with the engine running.

While it was agreed that a defence of necessity had applied in this case, once the cows were contained and the danger averted this defence was no longer applicable.

Millar was sentenced to 30 days in jail to be served on weekends and banned from driving for two years, but is now appealing the conviction.

Defence lawyer Alan Pearse said Millar had risked his “liberty, if not his life” to prevent “carnage” on the highway.