Sheriff agrees to send lost cow, calf to sanctuary

Office bombarded with calls and emails asking that the animals not be sent to slaughter.

A lost cow and her calf might be headed to greener pastures thanks to the efforts of a Georgetown resident, some animal defense groups and Williamson County officials.

The sheriff ’s office agreed Monday afternoon — after being bombarded with phone calls and emails earlier in the day — to give the cow, dubbed “Liberty,” and her calf to an animal sanctuary if no one claims them.

The calls and emails came pouring into the office Monday morning asking officials not to send the animals to slaughter, said Patricia Gutierrez, a sheriff ’s spokeswoman.

The cattle have been wandering around the Wolf Ranch neighborhood in Georgetown, where houses are still being built, since the summer. Cowboys working with the sheriff ’s office were looking for the animals Monday but had not found them by late afternoon.

People concerned about the fate of the animals began calling the sheriff ’s office after two animal defense groups, In Defense of Animals and the Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, issued a news release Monday saying the sheriff ’s office planned to round up the animals and sell them at auction for meat. In Defense of Animals named the lost cow Liberty.

Gutierrez said the news release was mistaken because the sheriff ’s office never said it planned to auction the animals. Renee King-Sonner, the founder of Rowdy Girls Sanctuary, said she had talked to sheriff ’s officials over the weekend who mentioned the animals would be auctioned.

“Today we got clear communication that cooperation was their motive, and that gives us a lot of confidence,” King-Sonner