A dead cow, weighing approximately 400 pounds washed ashore in the 5900 block of Beach Drive on Wednesday, Feb. 2 and was towed out to the water by the Harbor Patrol Unit of the Seattle Police Department on Saturday.

Sgt. Michael Pugel said, "We were going to get it Friday evening but it got too late so we came out Saturday morning."

The carcass had been moving with the tide and Sgt. Pugel said, "Over the past couple of days it had been drifting down, washing ashore, or being pushed offshore (...) It would have been beached this morning if we didn't keep pushing it out as the tide went out.

Harbor Patrol Officer Jim Johnson donned a drysuit (all the Harbor Patrol Officers are trained divers) to secure the animal. "We had to attach a rope to it, " Pugel explained, " and we wanted to keep it afloat because we wanted to keep it high and dry and then have to carry it out into the water. When we got there it was just barely on the beach."

The animal was towed by the Police boat to the Don Armeni boat ramp where it was picked up by Animal Control and placed in the back of truck. According to the Humane Animal Law Enforcement officers on the scene, "You don't want to smell it."

The carcass was taken to be rendered.