Betsy, Anchorage’s missing rodeo cow, has likely ‘moved on to greener pastures,’ owner says

Betsy, the 600-pound cow that escaped at a Father’s Day rodeo three years ago and eluded capture for many months, probably isn’t roaming the Anchorage Hillside anymore.

Though she was spotted by bikers and skiers on numerous occasions in the winter of 2018-19, reports tapered off after that.

[Rogue cow escaped from a rodeo and has wandered Anchorage trails for months]

“I think she’s moved on to greener pastures, if you know what I mean,” said rodeo promoter Frank Koloski, Betsy’s owner.

Betsy was 3 years old and scheduled to participate in a junior rodeo event when she broke out of her pen at the William C. Chamberlin Equestrian Center on Abbott Road.

What followed were plenty of sightings and a few occasions when capture seemed imminent, but Betsy proved too elusive.

“Golly, there were so many close calls of us being able to get her back and then at the last second ...,” Koloski said. “Everyone tried — the APD, the Anchorage Fire Department, the troopers, the FBI.”

The FBI?

“She walked right up to the front doors of the FBI building on Martin Luther King and Tudor,” he said. By the time Koloski arrived to lasso the errant cow, all he found was marks on the glass left by Betsy’s breath.