Battle Over Beef: How One Animal Rescue Sanctuary Tried to Save Steer in Johnston
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
The founder of an animal sanctuary farm that had hoped to rescue the steer that got loose in Johnston, Rhode Island is urging people to leave the animal's owner alone, who he said has been getting threats.
Last week, the "Johnston cow" that escaped weeks ago while being unloaded at a slaughterhouse in Johnston was finally captured and returned to its home in Connecticut.
Mike Stura with Skylands Animal Sanctuary in New Jersey, whose mission is “rescuing, rehabilitating, advocating on behalf of, and providing lifelong homes for animals — and promoting a vegan way of living,” said he is still hopeful he can still bring the steer at his facility.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Johnston Police Department announced Friday that the steer that was “on the lam in Johnston since its escape last month was captured uninjured by its owner Friday morning in the area of Pine Hill Avenue," and that the animal has been returned to the owner’s farm in Connecticut.
“We’ve been communicating in a very civilized manner and it has been going well since…Friday morning,” Stura posted over the weekend, of speaking with the steer's owner. “They aren’t going to fold from public pressure.”
“This is what they do for a living and they will not be forced to do anything. If they want to let this steer come live with me, it will be their decision because they’ve decided to let him go,” said Stura, urging people to stop calling and banging on the door of the owner — Ledyard Lewis — and said he even heard someone made death threats.
“So decide what your goal here is,” said Stura. “Is it to try and prove how persistent you can be by trying to force people to do something or is it to have this poor steer live a good, long life at sanctuary?”
Efforts by GoLocal to reach Lewis were unsuccessful.
Sanctuary Owner Urges Rescuing Animals -- Not Buying
Stura is no stranger to heading out of state to rescue cows — and sheep, chickens, or “any animals that are generally eaten.”
Just last month, a loose cow that shut down a George highway found its forever home his sanctuary, reported NJ.com.
A goat found wandering on a New York highway, with the help of rescuers, made its way to Stura's Skylands farm.
“I’m always called when there’s a cow loose,” Stura told GoLocal, saying he currently has over 80 cows at his facility.
Stura said that he spoke with the steer’s owner when he came up to Rhode Island to help find the animal when it went missing a month ago, and thought there might be a good chance following discussions that the steer would come back with him to New Jersey — but it was the owner who eventually captured the animal last week and brought him home to Connecticut.
“All escapees are feisty by nature. And this is a 1,600-pound animal we’re talking about. I told the owner I could take could care of it, and he seemed close,” said Stura of the owner.
“Then people started threatening him. That’s not cool. Farmers like that are hardworking people — they’re not weaklings and are not going to be told what to do. We’re both blue collar. I’m a truck mechanic. If someone said those things to me, I’m sure I’d have the same reaction," said Stura.
“I’m sure the bulk of the correspondence [to him] was please see a way to let this animal live. But there were people saying he was a bad guy. I don’t blame him,” said Stura. “That’s why I told people to put your ego aside. It isn’t helping the cause and getting the guy to hand the animal over. It’s not cool. I said please stop attacking the guy.”
Stura spoke to what he said is now another wrench in the process — that he heard there have been offers to buy the steer.
“I think the thinking by those people is they’re being helpful. We won’t take an animal if he’s been bought. That happens all the time,” said Stura. “Think about dog and cat rescues. The motto is adopt, don’t shop. Everybody sees the animal in this instance as an individual, and some people want to be the hero or celebrity by buying it."
“But what I worry about is the overall big picture — stopping people from seeing animal as commodities. And that’s what happens when you buy them,” said Stura.
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