A 1,500-pound steer, who’s being called “Moodini” because of his ability to get out of dangerous situations, amassed quite a fan base after escaping from his restraints on the way to slaughter in Rhode Island and eluding capture for weeks. The police department’s website has received thousands of hits since the steer broke free. Several sanctuaries have expressed an interest in taking him in—if he’s found—and a Change.org petition has garnered thousands of signatures in support of this motion. Even the steer’s “owner” is reportedly receptive to the idea.
No one, it seems, wants to see Moodini sent to a slaughterhouse, where he’d surely be shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun and hung upside-down, and then his throat would be cut. Consider Moodini an ambassador for all the other animals who never get the chance to make a run for it but long for freedom just the same.
If you’re rooting for Moodini to elude slaughter, why not show the same concern for other animals and go vegan?
All animals are individuals with personalities and feelings. They value their lives, just as we value ours, and they often go to great lengths to escape slaughter. Take Brianna, a pregnant cow who jumped out of a slaughterhouse-bound truck and ran along Interstate 80 in New Jersey in 2018. She was eventually captured and taken to a sanctuary, where she gave birth to her calf, Winter, two days later. More proof that mothers of all species really will do anything to protect their babies.
Another cow escaped from a transport truck on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx and ended up at the same sanctuary, as did the feisty “Brooklyn Bull,” who drew national attention when he escaped from a slaughterhouse and wandered through the streets of New York. And everyone cheered when a cow fled from a slaughterhouse and strolled through Queens, before finally ending up at the sanctuary, where he was named for the legendary Freddie Mercury.
Other animals have escaped from slaughterhouses around the country and run for their lives. The public always rallies around them, and slaughterhouses rarely come forward to claim them, likely because it would force meat-eaters to acknowledge who they’re eating.
Not every animal who manages to flee from a farm or a slaughterhouse gets to live happily ever after, of course. Just recently, around 75 cows escaped from an Indiana dairy farm and ran along a highway. Before the 10-month-old animals could truly enjoy their freedom, they were corralled and returned to the farm, where they’ll be forcibly impregnated and their beloved babies will be repeatedly taken away from them so that humans can steal their milk. The newborns will likely end up at the slaughterhouse, and when their grieving mothers can no longer produce much milk, they, too, will be slaughtered.
Stories like these remind us that farmed animals are fighting for their lives. If the news about Moodini or any other escapee from a farm or a slaughterhouse touches your heart, please think about all the other animals who are cruelly killed for animal-based foods, and go vegan.
