ORRINGTON – The town rented a fence and is rounding up renegade cows that are out causing property damage, but stragglers remain, Carla Brown, the town’s animal control officer, said Tuesday.

“We’re down to eight that are on the loose,” she said.

The runaway cows are owned by local farmer Herbert Henderson and are getting out almost every day, Brown said. In recent weeks, she and Henderson have been trying to herd the runaway bovines, but a few of the crafty cows have evaded capture.

“We now have metal corral fencing to hold the cows,” Brown said. “So, hopefully, this weekend we’ll be doing a roundup … to the corrals so they can be trucked out.

“Residents, please be patient,” she said. “We are doing what we can.”

Henderson, who owns farmland that is near the junction of Dow Road and Center Drive, “continues to be very cooperative” in rounding up the animals, Town Manager Carl Young said in a Tuesday e-mail. The town-rented steel fences were placed in Henderson’s lower field.

Henderson’s “old barbed-wire fence with pallets piled up to keep the livestock in,” is in need of repairs, Brown has said.

The cows reportedly have caused approximately $5,400 in damage to nearby properties, and Henderson will be in front of a judge in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Thursday, Sept. 4, to face property damage and animal trespass charges.

The wandering cows have caused damage to “people’s lawns, a few walkway bridges, mailboxes, vegetable gardens and trees that have been broken off,” Brown said.

One resident twisted an ankle stepping into a hoof print, and town officials are concerned about the possibility of someone getting injured, or of an accident when the cows wander into the road.

“The police have been directed to dispatch any loose animals perceived to be a threat to the public,” Young said.

Cattle have been escaping from the Henderson farm for years, and he has been given animal trespass tickets for the at-large animals that date back to at least October 1993, according to court reports printed in the Bangor Daily News.

Henderson has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The goal of trucking out the animals is to reduce Henderson’s 100-head herd to make the farm more manageable, both Young and Brown said.

The cows are sold to other farms or are being taken to the market, Brown said.

“If we pick up two or three a day, we’re making progress,” she said.