Officials: Bull still on the loose after escaping slaughterhouse

The running of the bull continued Wednesday in Mastic and Shirley, a day after it broke free from a Manorville farm, Suffolk County police said.

The first reports of the 1,500-pound bull busting loose through a farm fence came in about 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, with police warning the public that it was "running loose in Mastic and Shirley." As of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday police said the bull still hadn't been found and that there had been no sightings of him overnight.

Police are still asking anyone who sees the escaped animal to call 911.

Not long after the bull ran off from the farm at 136 Barnes Rd. police closed a portion of Sunrise Highway as the search progressed. It was reopened after a short closure.

The bull, coat gleaming, was spotted in the front yard of a home on Montgomery Avenue and police released a photo. Social media users and others in the area also shared sightings of the bull — including video of the animal running down a residential street — and expressed hopes for its safety.

Several groups and agencies are involved in the attempt to capture the animal.

The bull fled from a nearby halal slaughterhouse and was believed to be in the woods, said Frank Floridia of Strong Island Animal Rescue just after noon Tuesday. A wrangler was on the scene, he said.

"We’re here on horseback with lassos, and we’re just trying to get him before any accident, before any kind of damage is done to him or anybody else," Floridia said.

A group called Long Island Orchestrating for Nature, or LION, said someone in there had a "tranquilizer gun ready to secure him."

With Joan Gralla and John Valenti