Cows take over beer garden at closed restaurant and hotel in England

ACTON TRUSSELL, England (UPI) — A British hotel and restaurant temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic shared video of the beer garden being overrun by some unusual premature customers — a herd of cows.

The Moat House in Acton Trussell, near Stafford, England, said workers preparing for the business’ planned reopening looked outside Tuesday and spotted a dozen cows wandering through the outside seating area.

“We had spaced out the tables and chairs to try our meter or two-meter social distancing, but they showed no respect for that. We wondered if they thought they had herd immunity,” Chris Lewis, managing partner of Moat House owner Lewis Partnership, told the Express & Star newspaper.

Lewis said the herd wandered over from a nearby farm.

“They had a look at all our outside wedding facilities and at one stage they looked like guests at a wedding,” he said.

Staff contacted the cows owner, who led them away from the business.

“Even the cows can’t wait for us to reopen,” The Moat House quipped in a Facebook post.

The Moat House, which closed in March. plans to reopen in early July.

Reporting by Ben Hooper