Can someone just get Mike Stura a cape already?
You’ve surely heard of the brave but frightened cow that was running the streets of Queens yesterday, having escaped a slaughterhouse. Police corralled the streets, ultimately catching him unharmed and disappointingly returning him to the place from which he’d just broken free.
But thankfully the story didn’t end there (we’d be the biggest Debbie Downers of all time if that was the case). Mike Stura to the rescue! As I watched the surreal footage of a cow wandering an urban neighborhood, I half expected to see Mike, dressed like a superhero, bounding down the street after him. While that didn’t happen, I was not surprised to wake up this morning to the news that Mike had, in fact, managed to convince the slaughterhouse to relinquish the cow to his care at Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue as an act of goodwill. Dear Freddie, you have no idea how good you are about to have it!
Escaped “food animals” always make the news and inevitably elicit sympathy from even the most ardent omnivores. These are great opportunities to start a conversation about why people feel empathetic toward one animal looking for well-deserved TLC, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the millions of animals killed for food yearly in this country alone–each yearning for freedom just as Freddie did.
While I don’t possess the wherewithal to do what Mike, Wendy, and all of the amazing volunteer staff at Skylands do on a daily basis, my support of their endeavors helps me to feel that I am some small part of the amazing work that they do. If you love these happy endings as much as I do, you can help too!