The Runaway Bull of New York Has Finally Been Captured
Anyone remember Barnie the bull? Seems Barnie wasn't feeling a trip to the slaughterhouse, so the 1,500-pound bull escaped from a farm in Manorville one morning in mid July, The plight of this ornery bovine even made him a bit of a media celebrity across the Tri-State area, as officials and animal rescue groups scrambled to locate him. Police were forced to shut down part of the Sunrise Highway for around 20 minutes, as they desperately attempted to corral the giant animal. Since then he's been on the lam.
But now it looks like his journey is over. The Suffolk County SPCA says Barnie was captured at an old duck farm in Moriches late Wednesday. FOX 5 says that a group called Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue, plus the Suffolk County Police had been monitoring Barnie, and even set up a feeder. Now, after he was given a clean bill of health from the vet, Barnie will live out his life at the Skylands farm in Wantage, New Jersey, So, a happy ending.
In a much sadder bit of animal related news from the area, a dead humpback whale washed up ashore last Friday. The National Parks Service says a 40 foot dead whale was spotted off the coast of Staten Island. Gothamist reports that there have been thirty one humpback deaths over the past five years, which makes us second in the United States only to Massachusetts. Boat strikes are a considerable danger to these giant ocean mammals, who's migration patterns have been bringing them closer and closer to shore in recent years. According to the data at NOAA, this is the first humpback death on the coast of New York this year.