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Most everyone who knew Vindicator said the purebred Scottish Highland bull was as friendly as a puppy, that he'd eat cookies out of the hands of children.

But Rusk County farmer John Weinel described the animal as "mean and nasty and stealthy and not be trusted," a marauding menace who broke through his fence once too often in August 2013.

During that confrontation, Weinel later told a judge, the bull charged him and Weinel ran to his pickup truck, where the bull stopped about three feet short, "swinging his horns and huffing and puffing."

Weinel then shot Vindicator out the window 14 times with a .45 caliber handgun.

The bull's owner sued. Weinel argued he acted in self defense.

"I wanted to put that thing down before it got me, my kids, my truck, or another fence line," he testified. " I didn’t think there was any alternative.”

A worker from the neighboring farm where Vindicator lived testified that on that day in August 2013, Weinel had confronted him about Vindicator again coming on his land, and said he would “take care of [Vindicator] so that [the neighbor] would never get him back.”

About 20 minutes later, Vindicator's caretaker said, he heard gunshots. The bull was found dead in the woods about a month later.

Circuit Judge Steven P. Anderson didn't buy Wienel's self defense argument and in January 2015 ordered Weinel to pay Vindicator's owners $5,000 in damages and return the bull's skull once the snow melted enough for Weinel to find it on his property.

He noted Weinel made it to his truck. " He got into his truck, whether the bull continued to charge or not; he was protected by his truck from harm from the bull. So the act of shooting the

bull, 14 times I think ...[,] was unnecessary.."

Weinel appealed, claiming the court had not sufficiently considered his claim of self defense, but the Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed Anderson.

"That the evidence may also have supported a contrary inference is not a sufficient basis to overturn the court’s finding," wrote District III presiding Judge Lisa Stark.