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A cow escaped a slaughterhouse and hid for 40 days
Boing Boing • • science
Key Points:
- Emily, a three-year-old heifer weighing 1,600 pounds, escaped from a slaughterhouse in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, just minutes before she was to be killed in 1995.
- She survived for 40 days during a harsh winter, evading capture while foraging in backyards and occasionally running with deer, supported by local residents who hid and fed her despite police orders to shoot on sight.
- After losing 500 pounds, Emily was captured and purchased for one dollar by the Randa family, who brought her to the Peace Abbey animal sanctuary on Christmas Eve.
- Emily lived at the sanctuary for eight more years, becoming a symbol of animal rights and vegetarianism, even serving as a bridesmaid at weddings, before dying of uterine cancer in 2003.
- Her legacy is commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue at the Peace Abbey, positioned between figures of Mother Teresa and Gandhi.
