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Jamaica Officers Pay $40 to Save Goat After It Escapes From Slaughterhouse

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | January 21, 2016 7:01pm
 Merrick was taken to an animal sanctuary in Suffolk County.
Merrick was taken to an animal sanctuary in Suffolk County.
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NYPD

QUEENS — Police officers from a Jamaica precinct paid $40 to a local slaughterhouse to save a baby goat after it ran away Monday night. On Thursday, the animal was taken to an animal sanctuary.

The goat broke loose from the slaughterhouse located near Merrick Avenue and 180th Street. When members of the 103rd Precinct’s Anti-Crime Unit got there, they immediately decided it could not go back to where it escaped from.  

Sgt. Mary Humburg and Officers Anthony Fernandez and Danny Gasperetti paid $40 to the slaughterhouse and took the animal with them.

“I love animals,” Humburg said. “He was just a baby. How could I let it get killed?”

They named the goat “Merrick” after the street where the animal was found and kept it until they found a safe home for it.

“He fought crime with us,” Humburg joked. "Best $40 I've spent."

On Thursday morning, the animal was taken to an animal sanctuary in Suffolk County “where he will live a happy life,” Humburg said. 

“He deserved his freedom,” she added.

The 103rd Precinct posted several pictures of the officers with the goat on Twitter. “Sometimes you get guns, sometimes you get goats,” the precinct tweeted. “It's not just a job, it's an adventure.”

On Thursday afternoon, shortly after "Merrick" was taken to Suffolk County, a cow escaped from another Jamaica slaughterhouse. But the wandering bovine was not as lucky as the goat. The animal was captured shortly after and returned to the slaughterhouse, where it was slated to be killed on Friday.