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Runaway bull dodges the slaughterhouse

by Andrew Strickler, Newsday

Moo, the freedom-loving steer who gallivanted on the North Fork for weeks while evading the long arm of the law, received a pardon from the slaughterhouse and will spend the rest of his days on an animal sanctuary, according to several people who helped arrange his safe haven.

"This is a fantastic outcome for Moo," said Susie Coston, of Farm Sanctuary, which found the escapee a spot with a Michigan group that shelters farm-raised animals. "His life will be fantastic. He'll live with the herd."

Moo's time on the lam began in April when he broke through a metal fence on a Greenport farm. For several weeks, Moo was a fugitive, slipping through backyards, chewing cud and traversing Route 48, where he was blamed for a number of near-accidents.

The 600-pound bull was captured May 26 after he led authorities on a four-hour chase through heavy brush and was brought down by a tranquilizer gun.

The conditions of Moo's release were cloudy yesterday. Moo's owner, Joseph Barszczewski, of Southold, declined to comment. Gillian Wood Pultz, of the North Fork Animal Welfare League in Southold, said she was contacted about three weeks ago by a local businessman whom she declined to name. "It is my understanding that this businessman convinced that it was in Moo-boy's interest…for him to go to a sanctuary," Pultz said.

Pultz contacted Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, who contacted Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, where she is a board member. Although the group shelters more than 700 animals, including 55 cattle, they had no room for another rambunctious steer. Instead, the group contacted several organizations nationally before finding a spot at Sasha Farm in Manchester, Mich.

Coston said, "When you see an animal with such a desire to live, it really pulls at your heart strings."

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