Newark Bull Settles in at Animal Sanctuary After Reported Escape From Slaughterhouse

"Can you imagine that people wanted to kill and eat him? Unreal. Do the right thing, go vegan."

bull at Newark Penn Station

A bull disrupted train service between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station on Thursday morning. Photo: Courtesy of NJ Transit

He’s mooooving on out to the country.

The bull that reportedly escaped from a Newark slaughterhouse and was seen running along the train tracks at Newark Penn Station on Thursday has found a new home at Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue in Wantage.

The animal rescue, located in Sussex County, posted a sweet video of the bull, whom they’ve named Ricardo, waking up Thursday night after being tranquilized during his trip from city to country.

“He has had a long, rough day of fighting for his life, luckily it has paid off..He has already been seen by our Veterinarian and hopefully he will stand up soon…,” the animal rescue captioned its video on Facebook. “Just look at how handsome he is ❤️. Can you imagine that people wanted to kill and eat him? Unreal. Do the right thing, go vegan.”

It was a holy-cow situation in Newark on Thursday morning when Ricardo’s sudden appearance on the train tracks snarled service between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station.

According to ABC7, officials believe the bull escaped from a nearby slaughterhouse and that the animal is about a year old.

Authorities in Newark responded to a call about a loose bull at Frelinghuysen Avenue near Victoria Street a little before 11 am on Thursday and were able to contain it “inside a fenced lot without incident,” according to Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Fragé.

Ricardo is certainly in good hands at Skylands.

Former truck driver Mike Stura started the sanctuary in 2014 and has rescued animals from sheep to cows to horses to pigs to fowl. An ill calf named Jimmy was the animal who truly inspired Stura to begin his life’s passion.

He became a vegeterian, then a vegan, well before that, after hearing a fellow truck driver talk about a two-day marinated steak he was planning to enjoy with his wife.

“He was a big guy,” Stura told New Jersey Monthly in 2020, “and it just struck me out of the blue: How many animals had been killed so he could maintain his size?


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