Rodeo workers help Washington police round up runaway zebras on interstate
Three zebras were successfully recaptured by state police and rodeo professionals after wandering on to a major interstate in Washington state, though one remains on the lam.
On Sunday, four zebras escaped from their trailer while being transported to Montana via Interstate 90, the Seattle Times reported.
The zebras broke free and began wandering a portion of the highway near the city of North Bend, Washington, located on the outskirts of Seattle.
Three of the runaway zebras, including a foal, were corralled hours after initially escaping, a spokesperson for the Washington state patrol confirmed on X. One zebra was still “outstanding” as of Sunday evening.
The Guardian could not reach a representative of the Washington state patrol for an update on the remaining zebra’s whereabouts.
Trooper Rick Johnson said the “crazy” zebra incident was a “first for me and all [Washington state patrol] troopers involved”, in a post to X.
Pictures posted by Johnson show one zebra walking along the mostly empty interstate, as a police car drives nearby.
Two rodeo professionals aided police in apprehending the escaped zebras, KOMO News reported.
Local resident Whitney Blomquist told KOMO that a “rodeo clown” who happened to be in the area helped recapture the zebras.
“We got zebras on the loose, we’ve got a rodeo clown. I’m like, ‘Cool, we’ve officially turned into a zoo here,’” Blomquist said.
Johnson said on X that local community members “[came] together to help” capture the wild animals.
The latest zebra chase is not the first time that the animals have escaped from their handlers elsewhere in recent years.
In 2021, five zebras escaped from a private farm in Maryland and evaded capture for months as officials declared the animals “too fast”.
“You can’t hunt them down. They’re just too fast, they run, they won’t let you get near them,” Rodney Taylor, chief of Prince George county’s animal services department, said to ABC affiliate WJLA news.
