Snowmass Police stop search for escaped bull

Snowmass Police have stopped their search for the bull that escaped the rodeo grounds Wednesday afternoon. 

The last bull sighting was reported to police around 6:25 a.m. Thursday at the top of Horse Ranch Drive, about 1.3 miles from the rodeo, according to Snowmass Police Chief Brian Olson. The police did not get the report until 30 minutes later, at which point the bull had moved. 

“We’re not looking for it anymore,” Olson said Thursday shortly after 10 a.m. “The bull will eventually make itself known and when it does we’ll notify the owner and the owner can come pick it up.”

The bull’s owner told Olson that the animal will likely be elusive for a time. The bull is a skinny 3-year-old who’s not accustomed to its newly-found, escaped environment, Olson said. 

“He’s probably running a little bit frightened not being around his normal environment and his other bulls,” Olson said. “He’s not hanging out at houses. He’s kind of just staying in the brush, and that’s according to the owner.”

The bull first escaped by slipping through a fence as stock providers, who supply animals, were unloading it Wednesday afternoon in preparation for the Snowmass Rodeo. Olson said they put up temporary fencing to direct the animals to where they stored them for the night. 

Olson said they didn’t locate the bull Wednesday evening while using a drone to search.

“I realize how skinny he is, and not big and wide and massive,” Olson said of the bull and unsuccessful drone search. “I mean, he’s still a bull, but if he’s in the scrub oak and things like that and — obviously in the shade — he’s probably under something.”

Olson reiterated that the bull is not a danger to the public. 

“He’s just going to be out there grazing, wherever he is,” he said.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.