Tuesday Evening Crash Leaves Livestock Wandering Texas Highway

On Tuesday night, Heath Welch and Elizabeth Smith were driving on Chisholm Trail Parkway when they saw something they couldn't believe: A camel.

"I think this might be the first time I've ever seen a camel just walking down the tollway," Welch said. "I had worked a lot of hours and I was like, 'Am I seeing what I'm really seeing?'"

According to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, deputies from the department's Livestock Estray Enforcement Program were "dispatched to the 5400 block of northbound Chisholm Trail Parkway to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety at the scene of a crash where there were some loose livestock" shortly after 10 o'clock Tuesday evening.

"We're in Texas. I mean, a camel is just weird," Smith said. "I mean, if it was a cow I would have never taken a picture of it, but a camel is a little bit different."

Oddly enough, there were more animals.

"The donkey was in the fast lane," Smith said, though the donkey was actually a zonkey: a cross between a donkey and a zebra.

The couple said they saw a longhorn and calf, too.

"I called my mom when we passed through. I'm like, 'You're not going to believe what we just saw! There's a camel and a zebra (zonkey) and a steer, and Heath caught the steer," Smith said referring to Welch wrangling the calf. "I grabbed him and held him until the guy got there with the rope," Welch said.

The couple said had Smith not snapped a photo of a camel walking down Chisholm Trail Parkway, their friends might not believe their story.

"Rumor has it none of the animals paid their toll, so they're all in the pen right now," Welch joked. "And yesterday wasn't even 'hump day,' so that's what makes it real weird!"

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office said two animals had to be euthanized at the scene. The bull calf and zonkey had minor injuries, but are OK.