Cow Makes Break for Freedom in NYC

A cow destined for the dinner table ran away and enjoyed a brief taste of freedom in New York City before being captured by police and returned to a slaughterhouse. Video posted by the New York Post shows the brown-and-white cow trotting past shops and restaurants in a busy Queens neighborhood Thursday afternoon. The Post says the cow escaped from a halal slaughterhouse. "Yes, you heard right! Cow on the loose—Jamaica Queens. All Officers safe. No injuries. Thank you all for your patience," police tweeted.

Members of the police department's emergency services unit roped the cow and took it back to the slaughterhouse. A worker at the Jamaica Archer Live Poultry and Meat Market says the cow will be killed on Friday. But there may be a reprieve after all, CBS New York reports. North Shore Animal League America says it was moved by the cow's "passion for freedom" and so wants to buy it and place it in a sanctuary. PETA issued a statement saying it also wants to save the cow, and representatives from the Skylands animal sanctuary in New Jersey "are on the way to Queens now in the hope of whisking the animal away to freedom." (More PETA stories.)