Check your inbox: There are cows on the loose

A rookie RCMP constable with rancher roots is using newfangled technology to wrangle an old-fashioned problem: escaped cows wandering on Williams Lake-area roads. RCMP Const. Colin Champagne was frustrated by on-the-lam livestock causing car accidents, but discovered it was difficult to track down the animals' owners because they often didn't live near the expansive ranges where the cows were grazing. "One particular group of animals were owned by a man in Kamloops and were grazing on Crown range. We were knocking on all these doors, and people were saying, 'No I don't know whose [cattle] these are,' " said Champagne, whose first posting as an RCMP officer was in Williams Lake last June. The constable's search for answers led him to the president of a local cattlemen's association, who knew the owners of most local cows. By December, Champagne had created an e-mail chain to the presidents of seven area cattlemen associations, who would in turn alert their members when fences were down or cows had escaped...more