Earlier this month, an owner of a vegan animal shelter in Newfane, New York… arrested for grand theft, a felony. The charges against the owner of the shelter in the state are rather unusual: the police allege that she stole some cows from a neighboring meat farmer.
The controversy started when two cows from a herd owned by farmer Scott Gregson, owner of McKee Farm in Newfane, was missing on July 15.
“I don’t understand how they got out, because the fence was intact, the gates were closed and the… [electric fence] charger worked,” Gregson told Lancaster Agriculture.
When Gregson later heard the couple was at the neighbor’s animal shelter, and half mile along the way, he asked the shrine’s owner, Tracy Murphy, to bring them back.
“She asked if I had proof that I owned it, then told me to get off her property because I was trespassing,” Gregson says. told USA today.
“How could anyone expect us to hand over the animals when we feel we are within our right to retain these animals at this point?” early Asha’s Farm Sanctuary owner Murphy, in comments indicated by station WIVB last month. “And we’re a shelter. We don’t want to give up these animals that go to slaughter.’
Instead, Murphy offered to buy the cows. Gregson refused. A sort of stalemate ensued.
Police visited Murphy in July, they say, and asked her to bring the cows back. She didn’t.
As the WIVB report also points out, neighbors came together to support Gregson – by everyone reports an exemplary farmer—even protesting outside Asha’s Farm Sanctuary. Neighbor Nancy Fawcett told the station that cattle occasionally break loose in farming communities, and to confiscate those cattle instead of returning the animals to their rightful owner “it just didn’t make sense, that’s not what you’re doing.”
“Nothing against [Murphy]what she does, her business and what she chooses to do for the well-being of the injured and helping other animals,” said another neighbor, Laurie Andrews-Skinner. “But in this case, she stole two cows and must return it to its rightful owner.”
“The message was simple”, said local farmer Ed Pettitt Sr., who staged a protest outside Asha’s in support of Gregson. “It was: don’t steal” [or] violating the livestock rights of our farmers. The other side tried to make it about eating meat, veganism, that’s not the point.”
The police agreed. Earlier this month they returned to Asha’s Farm Sanctuary, arrested Murphy charged with grand theft, seized the cows and returned them to Gregson.
Murphy will fight the charges. “From my point of view, now that she has been charged, the battle has only just begun, but we intend to defend her rights in every court imaginable,” Murphy’s attorney Matthew Albert said. said earlier this month.
Domesticated pets such as dogs and livestock such as cows are considered property by law.
“These cattle belong to the farmer and everyone involved knows that, so there is no legal right not to return them,” explained Brook Duer, a veteran Pennsylvania agricultural attorney, in comments she made to: Lancaster Agriculture on the Newfane controversy. “I’ve never heard of anything like this with cattle.” Duer also suggested “finders keepers” is not a legal theory that applies in this case.
‘s mission Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is typical of such facilities: “to end animal cruelty through direct rescue and rehabilitation.” While many animal sanctuaries are undoubtedly run by people who care deeply about those animals, many stories have emerged over the years that show that sometimes they don’t or don’t care. in front of the animals they care about. In 2020 for example The Washington Post reported on a criminal investigation into the founder of Earth Animal Sanctuary in Illinois, who was charged with aggravated animal cruelty after hundreds of animal carcasses — some still decaying — were found in sacks on the property.
More recently, in May, the owner of a New Jersey animal shelter, Rooster’s Rescue Foundation, charged with animal cruelty after researchers found dozens of “neglected” animals at the shelter. Last month, officers in Mayfield, New York, a few hours west of Newfane, seized dozens of animals from an animal shelter owner who, they to claimkept dogs, rabbits, goats and other animals in “dirty, uninhabitable conditions”.
Property rights are primarily there to protect property owners. And animals are property.
If the tables had turned here—if some of Murphy’s animals had broken free from her shelter and ended up on Gregson’s farm—those animals would still be Murphy’s property. Not Gregson’s. And I would have written a column in support of Murphy.
