PETA offering up to $5,000 reward for info on impaled Hempfield cow

An animal rights organization is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people who police say impaled a cow with a piece of farm machinery and left it to die at a Hempfield farm this month.

The reward is being offered by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“PETA is urging anyone with information about this case to come forward so that whoever killed this cow can be held accountable and stopped from hurting anyone else,” PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien said in a statement.

State police in Greensburg are investigating the incident, which they say occurred between 3 and 4 a.m. Feb. 12 in a field along Matt Shields Road.

There were no solid leads as of early Monday afternoon, police said.

“Our goal is hopefully to stir up somebody that’s willing to come forward to give us some more information,” Trooper Steve Limani said.

According to police, the cow’s owner said he went to the farm around 5 p.m. after the property owner called and questioned why he had been driving a tractor on the property around 4 a.m. The tractor is equipped with hydraulic lifts used to lift bales of hay.

The cow’s owner told the property owner he was not driving a tractor at that time.

When he arrived, the cow’s owner found the dead cow and a tractor parked roughly 200 feet from the gate to the cow pasture. He told police the cow pasture gate was damaged.

Limani said troopers reported the cow had two wounds. Investigators believe it was impaled by the two forks on the tractor. The cow had been speared through the back, left side of its body and the front left shoulder.

The property owner told the cow’s owner there was a pickup truck following the tractor.

Limani said troopers believe at least two people were involved. Troopers are hoping the person driving the pickup truck or another witness will come forward.

“There had to be two people there cause there was a pickup truck following the tractor,” Limani said. “The person that was driving the pickup truck, they could receive a punishment that’s equivalent to the person that actually committed the crime against the cow. They could be just as guilty.”

Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 724-832-3288.