New golf course hazard: Cows?

Columbia County's beautiful Bartram Trail public golf course has the usual hazards associated with any other links: rough, water, sand.

//

Add one more to that list: Livestock.

In the past couple of weeks, cows from nearby farms have excaped from their fences and found that the grass really is greener on the other side - particularly when it's the lush lawn of a golf course.

As humorous as it might seem, loose livestock is no laughing matter for Columbia County Animal Care and Control. The cows that have gotten loose lately have tied up the time of county staffers corralling the animals and tracking down their owners. If owners can't be found, the animals have to be housed until the livestock can be adopted.

To help solve the problem, Animal Care and Control keeps a database of livestock owners in the county. But just as cows (or, in the past, horses, or pigs, or even emus) sometimes escape, so are some owners not in the system.

Thus, the county is making a new effort to get all livestock owners registered.

It's free. All it takes is for livestock owners to make a quick call to (706) 541-4077 to provide the information to make it easier for wayward animals to get back home.

And it's a lot cheaper than replacing a lost cow - or paying for a damaged golf course.