Refugee or Piece of Meat? Feud Follows Steer That Got Away
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/nyregion/09steer.html
Judy Borsellino insists she is no cattle rustler. Nevertheless, she is not
about to return a steer that managed to escape a slaughterhouse on Friday and
wandered into the nearby truck repair garage she owns in a gritty industrial
stretch of Newark's Ironbound section.
Around noon on Friday, a brown and white steer with the number 970 tagged to
its side broke free from the slaughterhouse, Halal Fresh Meats, and took a
500-yard ramble to Ms. Borsellino's business, the Triangle Towing Service.
To do so, it headed along Lockwood Street and away from the squat brick
slaughterhouse with signs advertising "freshly slaughtered beef." It made a
right onto Ferry Street and another right through the gate into Ms.
Borsellino's lot, an expanse cluttered with engine parts, debris and large
trucks in various states of disrepair. The steer then walked directly into the
auto garage and plopped down next to a truck.
Instead of calling the slaughterhouse or the authorities, Ms. Borsellino, 60,
jumped up from her desk and quickly trapped the animal on her property.
"I shut the gate and said, 'He's ours now,' " she recalled yesterday.
Ms. Borsellino called it divine justice that led the steer to her garage. She
does not eat beef, she said, and objects to the slaughter of cattle. Also, she
says the owners of the slaughterhouse owe her $4,000 for repairs her company
made on their trucks a year ago.
Two men from the slaughterhouse arrived with ropes on Friday to try to take
back the animal, but Ms. Borsellino demanded the $4,000. The men balked,
explaining that the steer was worth only about $1,000, she said.
"Then I decided, 'Forget it, I'm keeping it,' " she said. "I told them: 'Take
a walk. I'll keep the cow and knock $1,000 off your bill.' "
A man who answered the telephone at the slaughterhouse yesterday said that the
owner was discussing the case with a lawyer.
"That lady can do whatever she wants with the cow," said the man, who would
identify himself only as Danny. "Whatever it's worth, she owes us the money
for the animal."
The case of the wayward steer was first reported yesterday in The Star-Ledger.
No authorities had intervened, but last night, Dr. Nancy Halpern, New Jersey's
state veterinarian, said there could be serious health concerns with keeping a
steer in a truck repair lot.
"Obviously, an auto mechanic in Newark can't just keep a steer," she said.
"There's a concern that animals coming into the state for slaughter might have
serious diseases and you might not know it. That steer better not be moved
until it's tested."
Ms. Borsellino calls it the Freedom Steer and wants to donate it to any place
that will keep it alive. For now though, the animal is confined to a tight
alley between the garage and a brick wall, penned in with a piece of plywood.
It lay on a bed of hay next to some discarded truck tires and occasionally ate
feed from a bucket.
"He's fine where he is right now," Ms. Borsellino said. "I didn't go steal
him. He came here, and since he escaped, there's obviously something very
special about this steer. I don't want to see it killed now."
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