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Yvonne the cow forced to give up fugitive life

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Yvonne the cow forced to give up fugitive life
Photo: DPA

The Bavaria cow named Yvonne who escaped from a farm in May, went on the run and had a hefty bounty put on her head, has finally been caught.

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Yvonne was found on Thursday in Eigelsberg in the Bavarian Alps some six kilometres (3.7 miles) from the farm where she escaped, according local government sources.

But it took two tranquillizer darts from Henning Wiesner, the former director of Munich's Hellabrunn Zoo, to make the cow woozy enough that it could be loaded into a truck on Friday morning. Wiesner said he was surprised by Yvonne's fierce resistance.

"She was acting very hostile," said Wiesner. "She's got the qualities of a Spanish toro."

Follow Yvonne's odyssey in pictures

The Bild newspaper had published a €10,000 euro ($14,000) reward offer for Yvonne last month after authorities told hunters they could shoot her on sight because she was a threat to traffic.

Yvonne had previously run across a forest road in front of a police car. When news of the reward was splashed on the Bild cover, hunters and locals went out in numbers beating about the woods, and an Austrian animal sanctuary offered to buy the cow if it was taken alive.

Locals brought in Yvonne's sister, Waltraut, and an alluring bull called Ernst to try to lure her out.

"The whole family is waiting for her," said Hans Wintersteller, who directed the hunt for the wayward cow.

AFP/DAPD/The Local/bk/mry

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