Saving a Life EVERY 11 MINUTES
HELPI’ve fallen and I can’t get up!®
Not b-aad!
Lamb rescued from expressway
fi nds new home at bucolic farm
COURIER LIFE, M 12 ARCH 29–APRIL 4, 2019 PS
LAMB, COP: Police Offi cer Dominick Gatto
showed off Palmer after he pulled her from
traffi c on the Gowanus Expressway. NYPD
$1,500
SAVINGS
with
GPS!
® Get HELP fast, 24/7,
anywhere with
For a FREE brochure call:
1-800-404-9776
BY COLIN MIXSON
Call it bleating the odds!
A lost lamb police rescued from the
Gowanus Expressway this month will
live out her days munching grass and
rubbing hooves at a farm with other
four-legged escape artists, according
to the kind-hearted benefactor who
took the baby sheep in after her trot
through traffi c.
“She’s doing great,” said Mike
Stura, who runs the Skylands Animal
Sanctuary in bucolic New Jersey.
Stura, who named the lamb
Palmer after one of his faithful farmhands,
built a reputation as the go-to
guy for city Animal Care and Control
offi cials looking to hand off wayward
critters, after offering refuge to other
beasts pulled from city streets — including
a young bull that cops corralled
at the Prospect Park Parade
Ground in 2017.
Indeed, the rescuer said his farm
was the fi rst place offi cials from Animal
Control called, after offi cers with
the Police Department’s Highway Patrol
nabbed the cloven-foot commuter
on March 13, near the 38th Street exit
on the highway’s Queens-bound side.
Palmer was most likely on the
run from certain death at the hands
of a butcher when motorists spotted
her strolling among passing cars on
the expressway, but — due to liability
and public relations concerns —
her former owners are unlikely to
come forward demanding her return,
Stura said.
“Nobody will step forward looking
for the animal, because they’re afraid
of liability issues,” he said. “If the animal
causes an accident, and she’s your
animal, you’re liable for it.”
And Palmer won’t only share her
lush new digs about an hour’s drive
from the city with the bovine — she’ll
spend her days frolicking with other
sheep, goats, pigs, turkeys, ducks, and
a goose named Ted, some of whom also
escaped area slaughterhouses for the
greener pasture.
Skylands Animal Sanctuary is currently
closed to visitors for the winter,
but Stura expects to reopen the
grounds in May — which may still
be too soon for guests to nuzzle up to
the fuzzball, according to her new
guardian, who said she still has some
growing up to do.
For more hyper-local Brooklyn news on your computer,
smartphone, or iPad, visit BrooklynPaper.com
/BrooklynPaper.com