The lone remaining cow on the loose after 40 escaped from a Pico Rivera slaughterhouse will be spared and moved to a sanctuary, city officials said Thursday.
A deputy located the cow in Whittier Narrows Park, about seven miles north of a meat packing plant two days after the escape. The cow was captured and removed from the park in a trailer.
Pico Rivera city officials said the city has been negotiating with the meat packing plant, Manning Beef, to have the cow spared and moved to a sanctuary. Grammy award-winning songwriter Diane Warren, a long-time animal advocate, played an important role in the negotiations, city officials said at a midday news conference.
Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona said the city has been talking to the owners of Manning Beef about possibly moving all of the escaped cows to a sanctuary. But he said Warren plans to arrange for the most recently recaptured animal to be relocated to Farm Sanctuary in Acton.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
According to Carmona, the cow will have to be tested by state Food and Agriculture officials to determine it is free of disease before it can be moved to the sanctuary.
The cows escaped Tuesday afternoon and ended up in Pico Rivera neighborhood. Thirty-eight cows were rounded up and one was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy after it charged a family, but one cow remained outstanding until Thursday morning.
Members of Animal Alliance Network are planning a vigil for the cows Thursday night at the slaughterhouse.
The cows broke out when a gate at the meat packing plant was accidentally left open, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
The herd made its way to a neighborhood about a mile away and one cow charged at four members of a family, knocking them to the ground. They suffered minor injuries.
The sheriff's unit that rides horses was dispatched to help recapture and transport the cows.
Video showed the cows standing together in a driveway, some feeding on grass. Authorities barricaded the cows in the cul-de-sac and were attempting to corral them into a trailer as of about 9:25 p.m.
PETA issued a statement Wednesday about the escape.
"These cows' desperate bid for freedom should have been recognized by moving them to a sanctuary, where they could have bonded with other rescued cows, nursed their calves in peace, and lived out their lives just as you and I hope to do,'' PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said. "PETA invites anyone who cheered their escape or mourned their deaths to extend that compassion to all cows -- and all other animals -- by going vegan.''
