Cincinnati Freedom ( – December 29, 2008), also known as Charlene Moo-ken, after Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, was a 1,050-pound Charolais cow that gained fame when, on February 15, 2002, she leaped over a six-foot fence at Ken Meyers Meats, a Camp Washington (

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

)

slaughterhouse In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...

, and escaped. After eluding the traps and tranquilizer darts of SPCA officials and police officers for 11 days, she was finally captured just after midnight on February 26 in Clifton, Cincinnati, Ohio. She lived out the rest of her life at Farm Sanctuary's New York Shelter in Watkins Glen, New York, where she was particularly popular with

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

activists and animal lovers. Finding a permanent home for her was a source of some debate, as most considered her no longer eligible for slaughter. The Cincinnati Zoo declined to house her, citing health concerns and the possibility that she could not be safely contained. Jan Malley, a Northern

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

woman with a farm, was also considered as a possibility. In late March, however, artist Peter Max offered $180,000 worth of paintings to the SPCA for use at their next auction. In return, he took custody of the cow, whom he named to commemorate not only her dramatic pursuit of liberty, but the city into which she escaped. Cincinnati Freedom received the key to

, but did not wear it during the Cincinnati Reds Findlay Market Opening Day Parade on April 1, 2002, as planned, because she was judged too jumpy and nervous to participate. She was brought to her permanent home at Farm Sanctuary's New York Shelter on April 11, 2002, where she spent the rest of her life. She was reported to be doing well in the sanctuary and had apparently made a number of friends, including Queenie, a cow who escaped from a slaughterhouse in Queens, New York, in 2000. In 2008, Cincinnati Freedom developed spinal cancer, an incurable and untreatable ailment in cows. She was euthanized on December 29, 2008."Cincinnati Freedom, the fugitive cow" January 12, 2009, by Will Tuttle
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References

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External links

"Mooovin' Along: The Official Chronicle Of The Cow On The Run"
WCPO.com, April 11, 2002 1995 animal births 2008 animal deaths Animal deaths by euthanasia Animal rights Individual cattle in the United States Individual cows Missing or escaped animals