Police officers held drowning bull's head above water for three hours

An elderly bull on the verge of drowning in a Palm River, Florida pond got a life-saving boost from police officers on Friday morning. Deputy Christina Ammons found the exhausted bull in the pond, stuck in the mud and its head sinking into the water. She jumped in and held its head up.



"I saw big nostrils going underwater and staying underwater with water blowing out," Ammons said. An animal lover herself, she didn't hesitate to jump into the retention pond to rescue the bull. "I stripped everything off that the sheriff's office really cares about," she joked. "And then I got in."

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For the next three hours, Ammons and her partners kept holding the bull's head above the water's surface as Hillsborough County Fire Rescue brought a truck with a winch and slowly attached the bull to several straps. Slowly but surely, the winch tugged the bull to safety.

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"I'm amazed that the deputy was able to hold his head up out of that water," said Charles Cochran, the bull's owner. "You're looking at several hundred pounds." Despite nearly drowning and the stress of the rescue, the bull seemed to be recovering well. After a couple of hours of resting on the grass, it managed to regain his feet and walk back to the other cattle grazing by the pond.