Cow's life spared after river-swimming slaughterhouse escape

A young steer who broke out of a slaughterhouse in northern New Jersey, swam across a river and ran through city streets, has been taken to an animal sanctuary in New York where a “comfy straw bed” awaited him. The black-and-white steer was rescued by a volunteer with the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary who picked him up on Wednesday morning after tracking down the slaughterhouse, said Jenny Brown, a co-founder of the nonprofit centre in south-central New York.



The animal appeared to be a cross between an Angus and a Holstein, and a veterinarian, who was required to inspect the steer so he could be legally transported across state lines, gave him antibiotics, she said. He seemed to be shaken up and was pretty banged-up from his escape, including having a problem with his back leg. “We can give him a comfy straw bed and put him in a safe place where he is going to be loved and respected,” Brown said, noting that he was likely being used as a beef cow and would have ended up as steak on dinner plates.

The steer’s adventure began late on Tuesday night, when he fled the slaughterhouse and went careening through the streets of Paterson, said the city’s chief animal control officer, John DeCando. “It was unbelievable. It was like ‘Dodge City,’” he said, noting that after escaping, the steer came across basketball courts, where he “stopped for a minute,” then he jumped into the Passaic River and swam across to the other side.


YouTube link.

“You had to see the spectators - people were rooting for the cow,” he said. As police and animal control attempted to corral him, the steer escaped once more. At one point, he ran into a police car, but no one was injured in the escapade, DeCando said. Finally, DeCando managed to tranquilize him, and within four minutes the animal was asleep and snoring like a “newborn.” It's not clear how the steer got out, but DeCando said he figured the animal knew what was in store for him.

There's a follow-up video here.