The Fun, Brief Story of the Escaped Brooklyn Bull

Thierry Zoccolan/AFP/Getty Images
The Brooklyn Bull, Tuesday's internet hero simply incapable of Milkshake Duck-ing its way out of our hearts, stood its ground for hours in a face-off with police in Prospect Park.
According to CBS New York, the animal had escaped a slaughterhouse in Sunset Park. It had been spotted running around streets and sidewalks not too long before noon, when it entered the park. According to NPR, police at one point picked up soccer goals to try to corral it into a corner.
PICTURED: A cow is on the loose in Brooklyn, NYPD is following it. pic.twitter.com/gSGplxfsAr
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) October 17, 2017
The bull is still on the loose in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and a massive crowd has formed https://t.co/0BxokNogGY pic.twitter.com/xjdq2wiFXv
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) October 17, 2017
COW UPDATE: The Brooklyn cow is not backing down https://t.co/NvvFWGq259 pic.twitter.com/GaHDHVoJXt
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) October 17, 2017
*BREAKING UPDATE* @CBSNewYork bull bull-rushing cops in Prospect Park #brooklyn #escapecow pic.twitter.com/p9TEuAIt9p
— Chris Wragge (@ChrisWragge) October 17, 2017
NEW VIDEO : NYPD attempting to catch the cow in Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/whXztYQbm6
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) October 17, 2017
The internet rooted for it, and in real life, the bull drew “massive crowds.”
Found the cow staring down onlookers on Prospect Park athletic field. #prospectparkcow pic.twitter.com/mTSinbDRYO
— Alex Silverman (@AlexSilverman) October 17, 2017
let the cow be free pic.twitter.com/xKJ0uBVgr2
— Becca Laurie, PI (@imbeccable) October 17, 2017
Resist, Brooklyn Bull! https://t.co/Z2Ga6WhwEH
— Sarah McQuade (@sarahwhelmed) October 17, 2017
But eventually the bull was cornered on a soccer field, tranquilized, and captured. An animal rescuer told reporters—and you can bet there were a bunch of reporters on the scene—the bull was headed for an animal sanctuary in New Jersey, and the Associated Press reported it was headed toward rescuers on Long Island.
Update The 🐄 was benched in the dugout prior to #ALCS game 4. He was safely removed to @NYCACC & will be cared for until a new home is found pic.twitter.com/HfEXkFliR9
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) October 17, 2017
Again, we have to face the fact that this bull is not remarkable for New York, although maybe it is something that it, at least, wasn’t in Queens. Earlier this year, in February, a bull escaped from a Queens slaughterhouse, and its nearly three-hour-long chase ended with the animal’s demise, possibly from stress or tranquilizers. In April 2016, another bull that escaped in Queens got a happy ending when the comedian Jon Stewart sent it to a shelter in upstate New York. The month before that bull, yet another cow in Queens escaped and it, too, was sent to a sanctuary. Queens also saw cows on the loose in 2011 and 2009.
People were satisfied this one distraction from our regular lives ended up with about as happy an ending as they could have hoped for. It was good, dumb fun.
The #BrooklynCow has captured the hearts of New Yorkers... It's the talk of shoppers in Target #OverheardinNewYork
— Alicia Kearns (@aliciakearns) October 17, 2017