The April Fools’ Day Rescue That Has Everyone Talking

It was the morning of April Fools’ Day, and we’d gotten word that a bull was on the loose in Queens. But this was no joke. The “black baldy” Angus/Hereford cross we’d all come to know as Frank had escaped as he was being unloaded from a truck at a Queens live market, a storefront slaughterhouse where customers can select live animals they’d like to bring home as meat.

But that would not be Frank’s fate. Instead, he would hitch a ride to Farm Sanctuary courtesy of Farm Sanctuary Board Member Tracey Stewart and her husband Jon, former host of “The Daily Show.”

One of 30 million cattle slaughtered for meat annually in the US., Frank stands as an ambassador. We are unsure why a bull was being slaughtered, since most of the cattle sent to be butchered are steers (neutered males) or cows (females, usually ones who are not producing babies annually for milk production).

But we have no doubt that Frank is someone special. Frank chose his destiny that fateful morning. And like any animal coming from a farm situation into a huge city with smells, sounds and sights that are so far from what they are used to, he panicked. And the reaction to his escape only made things worse. He found grass — likely the only familiar thing he could see — but this was on a campus full of people at York College in Jamaica, Queens.

It was there that he was surrounded by people with camera phones, laughter, screaming, and chaos. It was completely foreign experience. And he was alone. Cattle are herd animals and have a very ordered social structure. They are much more secure when they are in a herd and the herd is basically a large family group.



And then, came the police and guns loaded with tranquilizer darts. He sustained two shots before he was taken away — thankfully to a place where he could be safe, Animal Care Centers of Brooklyn.



The rest of the story is now national news and Frank is now safe, happy and feeling much more secure at Cornell University Equine and Farm Animal Hospital, where he is being checked out before coming to Farm Sanctuary, his forever home in Watkins Glen, NY. Here, he will soon join his new herd and cattle family. Here he will have lifelong care. And here, he can live in peace.

We are so grateful to our supporters, many of whom reached out and alerted us to Frank’s initial escape news. Additionally, we are thankful to our friend and frequent collaborator Mike Stura of Skylands Farm Animal Sanctuary and Rescue. Thank you to all who have read this story and see Frank as someone, not something.





Update 4/18/2016: Frank has come home! Read all about it here.