Ag Deputies Show Off New Home Where Stray Buffalo Can Roam

LITHIA - Lowell Cain is one of the cowboys in the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office agricultural unit.

Usually he rounds up errant critters -- cattle, a goat here or maybe a pig there -- that are on the loose and threatening traffic.

He hadn't bargained on a zebra.

A couple years ago, though, he got a call to bulldog a zebra on the lam from a ranch in eastern Hillsborough County.

"He was wild," Cain said, grinning. "He would bite you."

He managed to tackle the zebra and get him on the right side of a fence.

As part of the five-deputy team, Cain often has to deal with exotic creatures. Once or twice he has had to stare into the cold cruel eyes of an angry emu, he said.

This morning, Cain stood and stared at a site designed for the agricultural unit. It's relatively new, unveiled this month. It's situated on 11 acres of pasture and wooded land on the north side of the Walter C. Heinrich Practical Training Center, off State Road 39 and way south of Plant City, the new digs are a place to keep lost, injured or abused livestock, said Cpl. Bruce Harrell, a supervisor with the unit.

Harrell said deputies get call about loose livestock just about every day. Today, there were three cows, two calves and a bull in custody at the site, where steel gates surround a metal building. Shade cloth keeps the sun out of animals' eyes.

Most of the time, animals that are found on the loose immediately are returned to their owners, who usually are ranchers known to the deputies. If a cow or steer turns up missing, it isn't long before someone calls to claim it.

The ones in the pen today haven't been claimed, probably because their owners are out of town, Harrell said.

Unclaimed animals are kept for two weeks. They are advertised in the lost-and-found classifieds and, if no one claims them, they are taken to the auction house and sold to the highest bidder, he said -- usually other ranchers.

Seldom does it get that far, though. Cattle, after all, represent a substantial investment for someone somewhere.

"We've got just cattle right now," Harrell said. "We have had a hog that we brought to auction recently. We had two small goats who went to the auction, too."

The bull, affectionately known by Harrell and company as "The Bull," eyed him as the corporal walked up to the pen. Somebody will claim him, Harrell said. The Bull is worth $300 to $400, maybe more. He was found wandering around Keysville.

Harrell and company's clearinghouse for wayward beasts is the product of three years of planning and engineering and cost the county $350,000, he said. It virtually is maintenance-free, he said, except for an occasional new light bulb or hose.

Sgt. Wayne New, who is retiring Monday, said the facility is desperately needed by the department, which has stored confiscated livestock near major highways in Plant City.

"This facility is state of the art," he said. Planning included input from all the agricultural unit deputies as well as design ideas from nearby ranchers who deal with livestock daily.

The most important characteristic of the impound area is the sturdy steel pens, New said.

They can hold just about anything deputies put in there.

"The animals we deal with, the ones that get out," he said, "are usually the rowdy ones."