Two dead cows were found floating in the River Ouse

Yesterday (Tuesday, June 14), Nick Enticknap was walking up to York from Acaster Selby, along the west bank of the River Ouse when he spotted two dead cows floating down the river.

He also saw what he described as an 'unusually large amount of debris' in the river.

Some of the debris he found in the Ouse Picture: Nick Enticknap

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Nick said: “I had just been chased across a field by a herd of cows and had to rapidly climb over a fence to escape them.

“They had seemed uninterested in me as I started through the field, I gave them a wide berth but noticed them standing up, I then heard them running behind me.

“As a regular runner, I thought, 'no problem', but after I few seconds I looked back again and they were right behind me.”

He then climbed the fence, which led to a path to the river, wading through 'shoulder high' nettles.

However once he reached the river, he was shocked to find the dead cows.

He saw the cows and debris walking along the Ouse Picture: Nick Enticknap

He said: "I was immediately struck by the large amount of debris floating down the river, I thought, 'that’s odd, we haven’t had any storms recently'.

"Then I thought is that a log? No, it is a cow. My gob was well and truly smacked. It was quite surreal.

"I then started studying the debris more carefully and spotted a second body.

"I just find it so strange that so much debris, not just the cows, was floating down the river.

"My hunch is that it all came out of Naburn where the weir and lock are, there is often debris stuck on the weir there."

He then contacted the City of York Council and Yorkshire Water about what he had seen.

The Environment Agency say that their team searched the river for a couple of hours but did not find the dead cows.

A spokesperson has said that is possible that the cows have now been removed by the landowner or they have moved due to the river current.

The Environment Agency say to report dead animals via their incident hotline on: 0800 80 70 60.