Goat on the Run

January 17, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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Animal Abuse at Storefront Slaughterhouses 'Would Shock the Most Hardened New Yorker’

BROOKLYN — According to the rescue operation Farm Sanctuary, New York City is a town teeming with farm animals hidden from view. Now and then, one of the thousands of cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens and other farm animals, which are annually transported into the city to be sold and slaughtered at the city’s “live markets,” makes an escape, and the ensuing chase makes news. 
 

Last Tuesday (Jan. 10) was such a time. Rescuers from Farm Sanctuary, a leading farm animal protection organization, arrived at Brooklyn Animal Care & Control to pick up the latest escapee, a baby goat found wandering along 149th Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. Because the goat was around the 400th animal rescued in similar, desultory condition from New York streets over the last decade, the organization decided to get the word out to New Yorkers, who they believe are generally unaware of these facilities. 
The goat was covered in dirt and lice and rescuers could feel “every bone is his body.” He was so weak he had difficulty holding up his head, which had been painted with blue spray paint. One of his eyes was apparently so infected that he couldn’t see. 
 
Upon arriving at Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter in Watkins Glen, National Shelter Director Susie Coston assessed his condition and immediately sent him to Cornell University Hospital for Animals, where he was put on oxygen, IV fluids and antibiotics. 
 
Veterinarians determined he had severe pneumonia, possible urinary blockage and was blind in one eye. 
 
“This boy has been through hell,” says Coston.
 
Regarding the overarching problem of New York City’s live markets, Coston says, “New Yorkers are a compassionate group of people, and if they knew how terrible the conditions are inside these places, for both the animals and the people who work there, they would be outraged.” 
 
Farm Sanctuary’s shelters in New York and California provide lifelong care for nearly 1,000 rescued farm animals. For more information, please visit farmsanctuary.org.

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