Final missing cow which escaped meatpacking plant found
By KCAL KCBS Staff
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SOUTH EL MONTE (KCAL, KCBS) — The last of about 40 cows which escaped from a Pico Rivera slaughterhouse earlier this week was found Thursday morning in South El Monte, and a famous songwriter has paid for the cow’s life to be spared.
The lone cow was discovered sometime before 6 a.m. in a park in the 1600 block of Rosemead Boulevard, near the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. The park is about five miles from the meatpacking plant from which it had escaped.
The Black Angus ran in circles as cars whizzed by on busy Rosemead Boulevard until Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were able to corner it with their vehicles. Two ranchers roped and captured it. The cow was loaded into a trailer and returned to the slaughterhouse by around 8:15 a.m.
However, at a news conference later Thursday morning, Pico Rivera city officials revealed that Grammy award-winning songwriter Diane Warren had come forward to spare the life of the cow. Warren will pay for the cow to be taken to an animal sanctuary, officials said.
On the night the breakout occurred, Warren had tweeted, “This breaks my f—— heart. These poor babies escaping for their lives. They know their fate. How cruel human beings are.”
At about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening, approximately 40 cows escaped from a meatpacking plant in Pico Rivera and ran wild through neighborhood streets for more than an hour, trampling fences, damaging cars and knocking over mailboxes.
The cows had escaped through a gate that had accidentally been left open at Manning Beef in the 9500 block of Beverly Road.
One cow was shot and killed by deputies after it charged at a family of four, knocking some of them to the ground. They suffered minor injuries.
With the help of some experienced ranchers, 38 of the cows were rounded up and returned to the plant by early Wednesday morning. However, the one cow had remained missing until it was located Thursday.
Since Warren stepped forward to save the cow, officials in Pico Rivera said they are trying to facilitate similar requests that are coming in.
Pico Rivera City Manager Steven Carmona said the city is collecting damage estimates from residents whose mailboxes, fences and cars were damaged in the stampede. The city plans on taking the list to Manning Beef.
“We haven’t confirmed that they will satisfy that, but we’re going to make sure that they take care of those issues for our residents,” Carmona said in a press conference.
Manning Beef has yet to make a public statement about the accidental escape of the cows.
A vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday evening outside the slaughterhouse, with animal rights activists hoping that the remaining cows will have the same chance at sanctuary as the one rescued this morning.
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