- FAIRMOUNT -- A happy ending
is in store for three of the four cattle that escaped from a slaughterhouse
two weeks ago.
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- The three animals soon will be on their way to a farm
sanctuary in New York.
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- The fourth animal, a steer, was shot and killed over
the weekend, said Max Amos, owner of Circle A Meat, 10811 S. E00W.
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- "The boys that shot it, I told them, if you find
it and shoot it, you can have it," said Amos, who wouldn't reveal
the identity of the men. He had received reports from drivers along Grant
County Road 100 East that the steer was eating grass along the road.
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- "I was worried about someone getting hurt,"
said Amos, who flagged down cars one day last weekend to warn them the
cow was near the road. "On 100 East, these cars fly down that road.
This one truck driver told me, 'I've seen it six or seven times and I've
almost hit it like three.'"
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- Amos signed a contract Monday afternoon, turning over
the other three cattle to Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, N.Y. An employee
of the sanctuary, Harold Brown, left for Marion Monday evening and was
expected to arrive by noon today, said Farm Sanctuary President Gene Bauston.
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- "The animals will change from being a commodity
to being a companion," said Bauston, adding that thousands of people
visit the Farm Sanctuary every year to see the pigs, sheep, goats, chickens,
turkeys, rabbits, ducks and geese. "They'll have pastures to graze
in. They'll have a barn to come into when it gets cold outside or rainy.
They will have pasture and shelter and companionship."
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- Amos won't be compensated for the cattle, which escaped
Aug. 3 just before entering the slaughterhouse. He had invested about $4,000
in the animals.
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- "It's a big loss," Amos said Monday. "But
it's out of my hair now. I'm tired of looking for them. Tired of hunting
them. Tired of making everybody mad."
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- The Fairmount Police Department and Chronicle-Tribune
were flooded with phone calls last week from people who didn't want the
cattle killed. The cattle have been hiding in corn fields and have defied
capture by cowboys with lassos, well-meaning neighbors and increasingly
desperate owners trying to track them with a tranquilizer gun.
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- Two of the cattle escaped a second time Friday, astonishing
witnesses by leaping over a 5-foot fence.
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- Bauston said he expects it will be a challenge to capture
the cattle before transferring them to New York.
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- "We need to create a positive, calming effect in
the area," he said, adding that Brown will work as a sort of bovine
'horse whisperer.' "It's our hope these animals can be calmed just
by being fed and being approached kindly. If there's any farmers in the
area that are interested in working with us, we're interested in hearing
from them."
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