This is a story of daring, grit and escape. It's an Arizona tale with the Western tropes of a lone hero, a standoff and a search for justice.
Two weeks ago a cow inexplicably escaped from a slaughterhouse in San Tan Valley and started running — and running.
The Show caught up with Ruth Carter, a volunteer at Aimee’s Farm Animal Sanctuary, to find out more about this great escape.
“A cow got loose from Miller’s Processing center. That’s a business where people who own cattle have them killed so that they can be eaten. So, this cow did not want to die, and so somehow she broke out of there and she took off. She was literally running for her life in the Arizona heat, obviously not knowing where she was," said Carter.
"People were putting up posts about her. She was photographed in front of a local middle school a little bit before noon. And then she was finally captured somewhere around 4 o’clock when she was found in a water hazard at a golf course. She ran over 3 miles in that time," Carter said.
That’s when the story took a turn for the cow — scheduled to return to the processing center — had a different fate awaiting her.
"When it was shown that she was found and all the pieces were put together about who this cow was, and where she came from, Aimee saw that and said, 'This cow wants to live, I want to save her.' And so she reached out to Miller’s processing plant and was connected with the owner of the cow," said Carter.
The cow’s owner granted 24 hours to raise $2,500 for the cow’s release, otherwise she would be processed. Around 5 p.m. that evening, the sanctuary put out a call to the community on Facebook — and by 11 p.m. enough money had been donated to save the bovine escapee.
"The following day around 4 p.m. she was delivered to Aimee’s Farm Animal Sanctuary where she will know nothing but love for the rest of her life," said Carter. "They have chicken, geese, ducks, goats, sheep, alpacas, cows, donkeys, a mule, pigs, mini horses, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits — I feel like I’m forgetting something," said Carter.
At the time of rescue, the cow still had a tag on her ear, which prompted Carter to say "our animals at the farm have names not numbers." And now this courageous cow has a name of her own.
“We’ve batted around several names, and I will admit we do like our pun names so the name ... Aimee decided on was Mootilda," said Carter, as she laughed "I told you we love our pun names. We have a Moo-cha-cha, a Moothius, a Moona Lisa, and now Mootilda. But Mootilda was named after a female warrior named Matilda who fought for her rights to the throne, and she led an army and used her knowledge to succeed.”
Mootilda is adjusting to sanctuary life, eating well and getting along with the other cows in the pen. The sanctuary also said she has a grassy pasture to graze, plenty of shade, high quality hay and grains and snacks of bananas and melon and apples.
The farm offers cow hugging tours, but we don't know if Mootilda will feel like hugs — just yet.
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