A Royal Air Force helicopter crew was today preparing to airlift home six renegade cows which escaped from a field and swam across a river to make their home on an island.
The one-year-old heifers swam out into the Humber Estuary last Wednesday, after trudging more than a quarter of mile from their home at Faxfleet Hall Farm, near Broomfleet, East Yorkshire, during the night.
The animals have spent the past week on the grassy island and now, farmer Robert Patchett, who searched for his cattle for several days, is hoping to get them back.
An RSPCA spokeswoman said a helicopter crew was working with inspectors from the society on the rescue plan. RSPCA inspectors are sailing to the island to tranquillise the cows which will then be lifted in a sling by a helicopter from RAF Leconfield, near Hull.
Updated: 11:07 Thursday, April 18, 2002
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