Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley had to put down a bull Thursday after it chased students and teachers at Dayville School. 

McKinley said he responded to a report of the bull chasing kids as they got off the bus Thursday morning in the school parking lot. He said the bull, a 900 to 1,000-pound animal with 7-inch horns, was eventually cornered and put down in an area away and out of sight from the children. Dayville is on U.S. Highway 26, east of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

“No one got close, and it never hurt anybody,” McKinley said. “A few people got their heart rate up from it.”

No one was cited in the incident.

McKinley said such events in the county are rare, but livestock do get loose.

“It happens, but rarely do they get out and start chasing kids around a school,” McKinley said. “The only time it turns into an issue is if it’s a major nuisance, and this bull was becoming a nuisance.”