A cow that tore through the streets of Brooklyn after escaping its fate at a slaughterhouse earlier this week has been taken in by a New Jersey animal sanctuary, where the creature will get to live out the rest of its days.
Stewie, a roughly 4-month-old calf, brought chaos to Canarsie on Tuesday, with video showing the cow dodging cars and a crowd of people who frantically chased after him. It was not clear exactly how Stewie managed to escape, but the cow could be seen repeatedly evading its pursuers.
Workers at a nearby pizza shop joined the pursuit, with Vincent Fontana, manager of Original Pizza, telling NBC New York he was concerned about the cow getting hit by a car and didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
After several minutes of freedom, the cow was caught at Avenue M and East 95th Street, NBC New York reported.
Stewie was taken back to the slaughterhouse, where his fate seemed sealed. But that’s when the Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in Wantage, New Jersey, stepped in, reaching out to the slaughterhouse and asking to take the calf in.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the sanctuary implored its followers to contact Saba Live Poultry, where it said Stewie was being held, to urge them to release the cow into the sanctuary’s care.
In an update, the sanctuary said the owners had agreed to let the calf live out the rest of his days at the rescue site after a number of supporters said they flooded the company with calls.
“THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT,” the sanctuary said.
The sanctuary did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from NBC News and calls to Saba Live Poultry were unanswered.
In a video shared by Mike Stura, founder and president of Skylands Animal Sanctuary And Rescue, Stewie could be seen standing in a trailer surrounded by hay.
“I got him. You’re safe buddy,” a voice appearing to be Stura’s says. In a separate post, the sanctuary also clarified that “the kid is a he” after some confusion.
“It has been a very stressful past couple of days, but worth it totally,” the sanctuary said in the post.
A number of animals already reside at Skylands Animal Sanctuary And Rescue, including Freddie, a cow who similarly made headlines after escaping a slaughterhouse in Queens back in 2016.
“All of the animals at Skyland Animal Sanctuary and Rescue are special,” the sanctuary says on its website. “Every one of them has been rescued for the sole purpose of providing him or her a safe place to live a long and happy life with others of their kind. They all have a story and a name.”
Now Stewie will be the latest animal to call the sanctuary home, bringing quite the moo-ving story with him.
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