San Jose residents fed up with cows, bulls making nightly visits

Residents in one San Jose neighborhood have been dealing with an unusual animal invasion. Cows and bulls have been coming to graze on their lawns and wander their streets. They say they've been calling animal services, city officials and even police, trying to get help. But now a group of ranchers is finally taking action. 

Each night, for more than two months, a group of bovine visitors have somehow made their way to Whitetail Lane.

They stay too late, eat too much, and leave large messes behind.

Resident Madhu Gaur says, "We were afraid to go in front of them or very close. They're not just skinny cows. They are big cows and bulls with big horns!" 

This is no ranch, it's residential San Jose. And neighbors fear these cows and bulls will present a danger.

So they've been calling 311 and Animal Services repeatedly.

Another neighbor Anju Desai says, "Of course that we can clean. I'm still ok. But the safety was the biggest issue. Night time a car is coming and in the dark they are not expecting cow on the street."

This part of the Silver Creek neighborhood abuts open space. And while cows have always grazed in the hills, they've never been a neighborhood nuisance until now. 

So what changed? A nearby golf course closed, and a local rancher told us, people have moved in.

Ranchers say they've been out here at least once a week repairing these fences. They believe they're being cut by the homeless and by teenagers out here partying.

And so today, ranchers from three properties got together, and using horses and dogs, they rounded up the cattle. 

They didn't want to go on camera but tell us for years they've had an arrangement that allowed the cows to graze on state land.

Now they've decided it's become too costly to continue.

The director of San Jose Animal Services says he wasn't aware of the problem until this week. He's hopeful the ranchers have now resolved it, but he says they'll continue to investigate.

Jay Terrado with San Jose Animal Services says, "We're going to have an officer there later on tonight just to make sure, especially on the road or the area where they've been seen recently to make sure that we don't seen any more cows."

The ranchers think they rounded up all but about 8 of the cows today. They'll be back in the morning to get the rest. They say the cows will now likely go to auction.