If there were any doubts about whether Joaquin Phoenix was sincere in his Oscars speech advocating for animal rights, this should clear them up. The Joker star rescued a cow and her baby from the Manning Beef facility in Pico Rivera, Calif., and took them to Farm Sanctuary in Acton, Calif., where they can live together in peace, without threat of being slaughtered. The move came a day after Phoenix spent his time at the podium, while accepting the Best Actor trophy for his turn in Joker, decrying the way humans treat all of the natural world. He specifically cited the plight of cows. “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth, then we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable,” Phoenix said. “And then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.” Grassroots group Los Angeles Animal Save captured Phoenix’s efforts in a moving, 8-minute video. To read more on this story, click here:Watch Joaquin Phoenix Rescue a Cow and Her Calf After Advocating for Animals in Oscars speech
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The call from the train operator came in just before 11 a.m. on Monday to the New York City subway’s command center, an alert unusual even for a system accustomed to morning commutes with delays: There was a breaking situation unfolding on the tracks. Two goats were on the lam.
The white goats with brown heads spent the morning trotting along the N train line in Brooklyn, making their way from the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop toward the 8th Avenue stop, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways.
“We’re told they were munching grass,” said Jon Weinstein, a spokesman for the M.T.A. They were tranquilized and captured just before 1 p.m., according to the M.T.A. Fortunately, the portion of the Sea Beach line the pair chose for their ramble has been closed to train traffic for station rehabilitation. They did, however, graze close to an electrified third rail. By 11:30 a.m., subway crews joined by the police had corralled them onto one of the closed tracks, according to the M.T.A. Riders experienced temporary service changes to the southbound N train. Around noon on Monday, the police boarded an empty N train, which ferried officers down the track to retrieve the wayward herbivores.
Where the goats came from is unclear, though there are a number of slaughterhouses in the area where they were found. Other animals, like cows, have absconded from slaughterhouses in the area in the past. “They do not have names as far as we know,” Mr. Weinstein said. They might by now. Jon Stewart, the comedian, and his wife, Tracey, picked up the goats in Brooklyn and transported them part of the way to Farm Sanctuary’s shelter in Watkins Glen, N.Y., a spokeswoman said. “There, they will receive medical examinations and the world-class, individualized care,” Farm Sanctuary’s spokeswoman, Meredith Turner-Smith, said in a statement. Both goats are male, and are of the Boer breed, which is commonly raised for its meat, Ms. Turner-Smith said. Mr. Stewart, the former host of “The Daily Show,” and his wife have been supporters of the shelter since 2015, when they opened Farm Sanctuary’s fourth location at their farm in New Jersey. Tracey Stewart is also on the board of directors of the farm animal protection organization that operates shelters in New York and California.
