A 10,000 euro (US$14,400) reward is being offered in Germany for the safe return of a cow called Yvonne, who went on the run in May after apparently sensing she was about to be sent to the slaughterhouse.
Yvonne, a six-year-old dairy cow, has, in the words of one newspaper, become “a kind of freedom fighter for the animal-loving German republic” since she escaped from her field in the village of Zangberg, 80km north-east of Munich, on May 24.
Having been fattened up, she was due to be dispatched when she managed to breach the electric fence surrounding her farm. For months she led a quiet life grazing among the fir trees of nearby forests, until she nearly bit the dust crossing a road into the path of a passing police car.
As word spread of this invincible cow, animal protection activists got involved, incensed that local hunters had been given permission to shoot Yvonne on sight. Gut Aiderbichl, an animal sanctuary over the Austrian border in Salzburg, agreed to buy Yvonne from the farm for 600 euros and has offered her a paddock with grass to graze on for the rest of her days.
Now a fight is on as the bovine protectionists are pitted against the trigger-happy Bavarians, who shot and killed Bruno, the first bear to be seen on German soil for 170 years, in June 2006.
Gut Aiderbichl are pulling out all the stops to catch Yvonne alive. Last week they enlisted the help of a bull called Ernst to lure her back home.
Ernst has “a deep baritone moo that will appeal to Yvonne,” as well as a particularly manly musk, the sanctuary’s founder Michael Aufhauser said.
“He is the George Clooney of bulls,” Aufhauser said.
However, sex is not on the agenda as Ernst is castrated. Yvonne’s sister, Waltraut, was also brought in to try to attract her.
Aufhauser called on an animal psychic to communicate with Yvonne. Franziska Matti, an animal communication expert from Berne, Switzerland, said she had managed to contact Yvonne using telepathy.
“I spoke to her yesterday and she said that she was fine, but didn’t feel ready to come out of hiding,” Matti said. “She said she knew that Ernst had been waiting for her, but that she was scared. She said she thought that humans would lock her up and she would no longer be free.”
Since the German tabloid Bild offered a 10,000 euro reward for Yvonne’s safe capture on Saturday, the race to find her has heated up.
On Monday, Aufhauser said he had leased a helicopter to track down Yvonne. If that did not work, he had a secret weapon: Yvonne’s two-year-old son, Friesi, who was previously believed dead, but turned up alive at a local farm.
Friesi was offered by his owner to Aufhauser, and was yesterday undergoing “intensive training” to learn how best to call to his mother.
“We know that the bond between mother cows and their sons is very strong. She will not be able to ignore him,” Aufhauser said.
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