32 cows on the loose in Fayette County

PERRYOPOLIS, Pa. (KDKA) -- More than two dozen cows are on the loose in Fayette County. 

A farmer in Perryopolis says her cattle have been missing for four days after escaping through a fence that was left open. 

The steaks are high in Fayette County as 30 cows are on the loose, potentially costing Stormy Gower on Thundering Hill Farm thousands of dollars.

"It's a pretty substantial loss right now so I'm just hoping that they make their way back," Gower said.

Severe storms rolled through the area last weekend and Gower says she believes the power company left the gate open after making repairs.

"It looks like it was just an accident," she said. "They were up there repairing the telephone poles. When the storms ripped through here, they had blown trees and branches and limbs into the middle of my hay field. So they were moving the branches from the actual line there." 

She has no trespassing signs throughout her property and says she always reminds visitors to close the gates, but in this case, it must have gone through one ear and out the udder. 

"We ordered new signs to put on the gate to keep the gate closed. We're putting padlocks back on, calling utility companies. And I was talking to some local farmers, we're gonna put cattle grates in and stuff to prevent this from happening again," she said. 

Gower says a horse and donkey also escaped but were found Monday morning about 5 miles from her property after potentially being chased by cars on the highway. 

"We've never had them wander this far," she said. "So that was kind of why I was really surprised they got that far, but it looks like from some videos we found on social media and stuff that they got chased pretty far, down 201 onto 51."

Now the search is on for 32 cattle that appear to be cow-moo-flaged somewhere in the woods.

"The woods here are pretty thick. So we did have someone run drones over early when this all happened but they can't even see to the grass line in the woods. It's pretty thick behind there. And then where we lost, where the cows were, which is the end of my road, there's a lot of woods there too. So our thoughts are they're probably in the woods if someone didn't pen them up."

If anyone has any information or has seen the missing cattle, you should call Thundering Hill Farm at 724-323-3762.