Two California Highway Patrol officers spotted a Tacoma pickup on the right shoulder of the southbound 215 Freeway in Perris and went to check on the driver.
He was drunk, the officers determined that January day. In the front passenger seat they met a placid-looking baby goat.
The 33-year-old San Diego man was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI. Animal control took in the kid until the man could pick it up later, said Officer Brian Seel, a CHP spokesman.
“He just purchased the goat,” Seel said.
Officers and deputies not only deal with suspects and victims. At times, they cross paths with the fanged, the furry, the feathered and the scaly. Even animal control officers come face-to-face with the unordinary.
-
CHP Officer E. Soltero with the baby goat that was the front passenger of a suspected drunk driver. The man and kid were in a Tacoma stopped on the shoulder of the 215 Freeway in Perris. (Photo courtesy of the California Highway Patrol)
1 of 8
CHP Officer E. Soltero with the baby goat that was the front passenger of a suspected drunk driver. The man and kid were in a Tacoma stopped on the shoulder of the 215 Freeway in Perris. (Photo courtesy of the California Highway Patrol)
Back in 2018, CHP officers rounded up chickens on the 605 Freeway after 17 somehow got loose.
The poultry pursuit happened shortly after 6 a.m. one morning on the southbound lanes near the 105 Freeway in the Norwalk-Downey area.
Nine of the Cornish cross broilers, raised to eat, survived and were named Bonnie, Clyde, Mulligan, Starla, Peggy, Eliza, Jessica, Davey and Miles.
They ended up at Farm Sanctuary in Acton.
Three roosters later went to another sanctuary, with Jessica, now 8, the last of the freeway survivors still at Farm Sanctuary.
“It’s good, she (Jessica) keeps active,” said Nicole Gaglione, assistant wellness manager at Farm Sanctuary. “She’s relatively healthy, moving around well. A very active lady.”
Two of Jessica’s farm-mates, Angus cows, June B. Free and Susan, also ended up at the sanctuary with the help of cops.
They were among the 41 cows that fled from a Pico Rivera slaughterhouse, Manning Beef Co. on Beverly Road, after a gate was accidentally left open in 2021.
The cows wandered through neighborhoods.
A deputy fatally shot one after it charged at a family, the Sheriff’s Department said at the time.Of the escapees, another 38 were slaughtered for meat.
One cow turned up in South El Monte two days later. A second cow was spotted running under the 60 Freeway in South El Monte eight days later and was caught at a park in La Puente.
The two survivors ended up at Farm Sanctuary, thanks to songwriter Diane Warren and the Animal Alliance Network.
“They’re good,” Gaglione said. “Both are still bonded to each (other). … They spend their days exploring the back pastures, eating orchard from hanging balls for enrichment, and lying in the sun.”
While the Riverside County Department of Animal Services has seen it share of uncommon housemates such as pet cockroaches and a capuchin monkey, nothing tops Chopper the crocodile monitor.
Crocodile monitors are from Southeast Asia: solitary in nature, at times over eight feet long, lifespans around 10, even 20 years under human care.
In 2017, a four-year-old Chopper slithered away from his Riverside enclosure in Riverside. A couple found him sunning himself on a hedge in their backyard and called 911.
An animal services officer lassoed Chopper.
The agency didn’t know where he came from. And his owner, DeWitt “Goldie” Vercher, was unaware Chopper had escaped.
A friend told him there was something in the news about a crocodile monitor that had escaped and was found near Vercher’s neighborhood.
Vercher checked Chopper’s lodgings and it was empty.
He and Chopper reunited.
Vercher bought Chopper from an exotic breeder and owned the crocodile monitor for eight years then gave him to somebody familiar with lizards.
“It was fun having him,” Vercher said.
The San Gabriel Valley had its own famous reptile.
Tina, an American alligator named after Tina Turner because of her “roaring voice,” was among the animals surrendered to Pasadena Humane in 1998 when owners of a traveling wildlife exhibit failed to get a permit in California.
In 2016 when she was 28, Tina moved to the Los Angeles Zoo and became roommates with Reggie, a pet alligator abandoned by his owner and spotted in 2005 in Machado Lake in Harbor City; he sidestepped capture for nearly two years.
The alligators live in a Louisiana swamp-inspired habitat with sunning rocks and thick foliage to the front of the zoo. They start their mornings basking and get fed fish, chicken and small rodents.
“Reggie and Tina are comfortable sharing the same space and cohabitate very well,” zoo officials told the Southern California News Group in an email. “Because they are alligators, there is no relationship to speak of.
“Tina is an American alligator, so ‘friendly’ isn’t a word that would be best to describe this species. She will follow certain cues that allow her caretakers to work safely in the habitat for cleaning and feeding and maintain a safe distance.
“Neither Tina nor Reggie pay much attention to the guests,” they said.