LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A cow which escaped from a Los Angeles slaughterhouse with 40 others was found on Thursday (June 24), but unlike her fellow ex-fugitives she will be spared after celebrity songwriter Diane Warren intervened on her behalf.
The cows had caused a sensation when they ran amok on Tuesday in the streets of Pico Rivera, a residential area of the city, wandering around and munching on people’s lawns.
Sheriff’s deputies aided by police on horseback took hours to corral the animals and get them onto trailers for the trip back to the slaughterhouse.
At one point, the police had the runaways cornered in a cul de sac but the herd scattered when officers tried to round them up.
They had escaped the meatpacking plant through a gate that was left open. The police shot dead one of them when it charged towards a family with children, but eventually 38 were returned to face their demise.
But one of them continued to evade the law and was found only on Thursday, grazing in a field a few miles from the slaughterhouse.
A Pico Rivera municipal official said the cow would be sent to an animal shelter, rather than the slaughterhouse, thanks to the intervention of Warren, 64.
The California songwriter, who has written songs such as LeAnn Rimes’ How Do I Live (1997) and Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing (1998), has won a Grammy, an Emmy and two Golden Globes for her scores for hit movies like Up Close & Personal (1996).
The town of Pico Rivera is itself in discussions with the owners of the slaughterhouse over the possibility of sending all the escapees to shelters, the official said.