A case of bovine intervention

These cows escaped the slaughterhouse for Lake Superior Provincial Park

There are plenty of good reasons to visit Lake Superior, but this summer, campers, picnickers and boaters might find an unusual attraction.

Between Highway 17 near Old Woman Bay, at the northern tip of Lake Superior Provincial Park, nestled somewhere amid the trees, towering cliffs, sprawling beaches and majestic Great Lake, are some cows. Golden dairy cattle, good for their milk and good for their meat.

Yet for three months, they’ve been good for neither.

How the livestock found sanctuary 200 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie is a story of survival against the odds, but the possibilities for their future are perhaps as vast as the lake that has since become their refuge.

On a fateful May 14, the cows were nothing more than passengers aboard a truck heading to the slaughterhouse. But things didn’t go as planned. As the 30-year-old driver steered along the highway by the bay early in the morning, another vehicle allegedly entered the oncoming lane. The cattle truck veered off the road and rolled into a ditch. Between 40 and 50 cows escaped bondage and made for the forest.

The following day, the driver was charged after allegedly driving the same vehicle on another occasion when it was not safe for the road, according to Ontario Provincial Police. The matter is still before the courts.

The OPP helped round up the bovines, warning drivers they might have to temporarily share the road with the beasts.

It’s perhaps the second or third time an incident like this has happened in the past six years, OPP spokesperson Ashley Nickle said.

Most of the cows were gathered in the first few days, she added, but since then, there have been reports of outstanding fugitives.

Nickle said at least some of the cows ended up at a local farm, but noted the farmer couldn’t comment on their status since his company is involved in the court case.

There are strict rules governing animals destined for human dinner tables. There are federal requirements that livestock must be “traceable,” meaning it’s possible to follow an animal from one point in the supply chain to another.

That ensures the animal was raised in a controlled environment, says Keith Warriner, a professor of food safety at the University of Guelph, but he noted it’s up to provinces to interpret those rules.

Under provincial law, food safety inspectors must “inspect each animal to prevent unhealthy animals from entering the food chain,” said the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “If the inspector has reason to believe the animal is not up to these food safety standards, the animal would not enter the food chain.”

But the provincial ministry wasn’t involved in the incident by the OPP, said spokesperson Belinda Sutton. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, however, was. In an email, the federal agency said it was aware of the incident, but didn’t deem any of the surviving animals that got out of the truck unfit for eating.

It’s not clear whether the recaptured met their destiny at the slaughterhouse. But for the cows that remain, the OPP says it will only approach them if they become a traffic hazard.