How a cattle catcher rode to the rescue when Barrington Hills bull bolted its pen

When a 1,600-pound bull bolted loose from a Barrington Hills resident's property recently, an expert wrangler answered an urgent cattle call.

Wesley Bush, of 2B Wild Cattle Catching Services based in Morrison, Illinois, rounded up the at-large bovine on Thursday, about six days after its getaway.

The capture wrapped up a whirlwind day in which Bush learned of the escapee's sighting in Barrington Hills, rushed from northwestern Illinois to the Northwest suburb, and located and caught the bull not long after arriving.

“He came out into the open and it was really easy,” Bush said Tuesday. “We just put a rope on him and had him caught.”

You might say Bush was born to be a cattle catcher. He learned how to ride a horse and work a rope while growing up in the Morrison area, winning roping competitions in his youth. He later began working for veteran cattle catcher Chet Peugh and eventually bought him out.

Over the years he's been called upon to wrangle loose bovines across the Midwest, including previous jobs in the suburbs. As recently as July, he tracked down six calves that had escaped from a family farm along Route 38 in Maple Park.

Bush said he learned of the Barrington Hills bull's escape through a friend who lives in the area and suggested he offer his services.

When police called him Thursday to report the bull had been spotted near Route 62 and Old Sutton Road — the same area where he had gone missing — Bush was wrapping up a job with Peugh in the Quad Cities.

“Get your horse saddled back up,” Bush said he told Peugh. “We're going over there.”

Along with their horses, the pair brought several dogs — Catahoula leopard dogs and black mouth cur — trained to assist in the capture.

About five minutes after saddling up, the wranglers sent the dogs into the brush and they quickly found the escaped bull, which was captured without incident. The bull was placed into a trailer and taken away from the area.

It is now at a sale barn awaiting auction, Bush said.

While Thursday's capture went smoothly, Bush said the job can be dangerous. Besides potentially aggressive cattle, he said, there's the risk of their horses falling or getting caught on barbed wire, and their dogs being attacked by other animals.

While the bull is now safely penned, his owner may not be out of the woods. Barrington Hills officials say Gulzina Eshbaeva, of the 300 block of Sutton Road, is scheduled for an administrative hearing Oct. 10 to face two village code violations: disorderly conduct-stray bull, and inadequate confinement of a bull.