ww. nytimes.com/2019/03/19/ nyregion/cow-major-deegan-nypd.html

Thought this article might mean more than meets the eye. At first glance it is a light hearted animal story about animals escaping execution and being saved to an animal shelter. A message of someone receiving jail time instead of execution? Am I reading to much into this?

March 19, 2019

By Liam Stack

The slaughterhouses of New York City have witnessed one daring escape after another in recent days, as first a lamb and then a goat and now a calf have managed to break free and make a run for it.

The male calf was found trotting north up the Major Deegan Expressway near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Tuesday morning with a tag in his ear and a look of panic in his eye. Animal rescue workers estimated him to be less than a year old.

A spokeswoman for Animal Care Centers of New York City said the animal was “very stressed” by the ordeal, during which he thrashed and kicked at the air near the concrete median as cars crawled past.

He was taken into custody by the Police Department, which named him after his escape route of choice: Major Deegan. His escape, and the ensuing traffic snarl, made him a sudden star on TV and social media.

The spokeswoman, Katy Hansen, said the number of farm animals that turned up on the city’s streets in the last 10 days was unusually high, something she described as both “crazy” and hard to explain.

“In all of 2018, we got three goats, seven pigs and one sheep — in the entire year,” she said. “So now in 10 days we have gotten a lamb, two goats and a cow. It is sort of like that movie ‘Chicken Run,’ when the animals all escape.”

Ms. Hansen noted that one of the goats, which she said the agency received on Tuesday night, was a slaughterhouse reject rather than a fugitive. Someone showed up at a slaughterhouse looking to hand over a goat, but the butchers inside declined the offer.

“The slaughterhouse said, ‘No, this isn’t our goat,’” she said.

The Police Department said the calf had wandered as far as Exit 6, about one mile, by the time officers from the Emergency Service Unit arrived. The police said they tranquilized the animal, took him into custody and transported him to an Animal Care Centers facility in Harlem.

Animal Care Centers, a nonprofit that provides animal control services for the city, also cared for the goat, which was found in the Bronx on Sunday, and the lamb, which was found on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn last Wednesday. Ms. Hansen said rescue workers named the goat Billy, and the lamb Petunia.

While the calf made his way to Harlem, Ms. Hansen said center employees cleared some dogs out of a play area in the backyard and set up an area for him, complete with a mound of hay.

When he arrived, the calf was led through the back gate “so he wouldn’t have to walk through the actual shelter” and was then left to have some peace and quiet, she said. Escaped farm animals, in particular, tend to be stressed out by their ordeal.

“They are in new surroundings and they have just run away from a place where they most likely sensed danger,” she said. “Now they are surrounded by unfamiliar smells and there are no other animals that look like them around, so that is scary. Their adrenaline is probably rushing.”

Ms. Hansen said the calf, like the goat and the lamb before him, was sent to Skyland Sanctuary in Wantage, N.J. The other goat was sent on Tuesday night to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y., which is well known for its association with the comedian Jon Stewart.

Sending an animal to a nearby sanctuary is standard procedure because slaughterhouses tend to be located close together, making it difficult to determine which one may be missing the odd pig or goat even when they are tagged, Ms. Hansen said.

Allie Feldman Taylor, the president of Voters for Animal Rights, said there are about 80 slaughterhouses in New York City. Ms. Hansen said if one of them comes forward and claims an escaped animal, it is returned to them. But that rarely happens.

“Probably because of public outcry,” she said. “When people really think about what they are eating, I guess it affects them in that way.”