A steer that made a break for it while on the way to slaughter in North Dakota has been adopted by a Michigan farm animal sanctuary and spared from the butcher knife.
The 1,800-pound steer kicked out a gate at a meat processing plant in Casselton, N.D., on March 6 and wandered around town for a while, prompting a school and a child care center to keep children inside before authorities got a veterinarian to tranquilize the animal so it could be captured. No one was hurt and no property was damaged.
Sasha Farm, which harbors abused and runaway farm animals, bought the steer named Waldo from farmer Todd Sadeck so that it can live out its life in greener pastures, WDAY-TV reported.
“He wanted to be free, and now he will be free,” said Monte Jackson, who drove from the sanctuary near Manchester, Mich., to pick up Waldo. “Well, not free — I’ll keep him fenced. But he’ll think he’s free.”
Sadeck said he thought the request to buy the animal was odd until he found out who was behind it.
“He doesn’t know how lucky he is yet,” Sadeck said of Waldo. “But he’ll figure it out soon.”
