An investigation into bulls escaping from a traveling rodeo in a mall parking lot in North Attleboro has found the company not at fault for the scare on Route 1, a mini-stampede one town official called a “complete embarrassment.”

All seven bulls that bolted out of the area planned for the Sunday rodeo had been captured by Monday night as local and state law enforcement agencies investigated the mishap, with findings being released Wednesday.

A pin became dislodged in a corral fence when two bulls had jumped on each other while being unloaded from a trailer, North Attleboro Town Manager Michael Borg said in a release.

“From there, the bulls pushed down the fence with the dislodged pin,” Borg said, “escaped from their pen into the event space, knocked down a perimeter fence, and fled from the parking lot.”

“Subsequent investigation determined that the event organizers took reasonable precautions,” he added, “and that the incident was not due to negligence.”

Owners from the family-ran Los Adventureros Bulls/Rancho El Milagro told town officials Tuesday it’d be taking additional steps to ensure full safety at future events. Those include inserting secondary pins and placing chains around panels to tighten and strengthen the fencing.

The company’s bulls have been trained to adapt to people, music, noise and other sensory elements present at events, owner Juan Gonzalez told the town’s Special Events Working Group.

“We’ve never had this happen,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time. I don’t want you guys thinking this was the first (time) and this happened. I don’t want this to happen.”

While the rodeo organizers have identified safeguards to reinforce their fencing, Borg said the town is “identifying costs associated with its emergency response and will work with the rodeo to recover those costs.”

Fire Chief Christopher Coleman went down to Emerald Square Mall Sunday morning ahead of the rodeo scheduled for the afternoon. He checked out the layout and emergency exits, briefly speaking with the traveling company.

After leaving the mall parking lot, Coleman said he received a phone call within 20 minutes of him arriving at a family function about the bulls on the loose and running across Route 1. Police and firefighters had asked for the heavily congested thoroughfare to be shut down.

“I will tell you I was not pleased when I arrived on the scene that day,” Coleman said. “We had discussed what could potentially happen at the meeting, and your group had indicated you had things in place, that this would not happen, and that you’ve done this in many other locations.”

“But now we had an issue where (seven) bulls got loose,” he added. “The town is criticizing this board as well as department heads to having had this occur. Bad press for everybody. Public safety was put at risk.”

Officials issued four permits for the event and conducted inspections Sunday morning.

The mishap, videos of which have gone viral, unfolded around 12:30 p.m.

Six of the bulls that bolted down Route 1 were found and caught roughly three miles away, at an Attleboro home, later that afternoon. A rodeo worker caught the final remaining bull near Emerald Square Monday night.

North Attleboro handed off search efforts to rodeo workers and other backup support after it used a firetruck, shift commander, an ambulance, and three chief officers “for four hours for needless work” on Sunday, Coleman said.

“This quickly degenerated into a threat to public service,” Assistant Town Manager Anthony Morabito said, “and a complete embarrassment to the town.”

The incident caught the eyes of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a national animal rights nonprofit urging “people everywhere to stay away” from rodeos.

A bull peeks out of a trailer after being rounded up at a home in Attleboro, Mass. after they escaped a pen at a local rodeo on Route 1 in North Attleboro Sunday. (Photo by Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle)