Two missing cows have sparked a toxic culture war in a sleepy upstate New York town after a vegan activist reportedly held the cows hostage at her animal sanctuary.
The bizarre and sometimes comical disagreement between the local farming community and animal rights activists has led to noisy protests in Newfane, a usually quiet rural neighborhood in Niagara County.
Protesters dressed as cows have organised meat barbecues in front of the animal shelter to harass the vegan owner.
Actor and renowned vegan Joaquin Phoenix has taken action against the misconception that cows are named after him.
A lawsuit took a curious turn when a judge recused himself from the case after it emerged he had previously messaged the defendant through the dating website Match.com.
Hornee (left), a bull, and Blackee (right), a cow, walked from a farm to an animal shelter, sparking a toxic culture war between vegans and farmers in upstate New York.
Animal rights activist Tracy Murphy refused to return the cows after they stumbled onto her property, sparking anger from the local community
Neighbor and farmer Scott Gregson, the owner of the animals, initially became frustrated in his attempts to get them back
But the case has also taken a dark turn, with both parties receiving death threats. The farmer who tried to get his cows back has received rape threats against his children, court documents allege.
The unwelcome feud began when a black cow and a golden-brown bull wandered off the farm of Scott Gregson, 44, on July 16, 2022.
The antics of ‘Blackee’ and ‘Hornee’ were not unusual. But they inadvertently caused all sorts of mischief by sneaking into a nearby animal shelter run by Tracy Murphy, 59.
She herded them into a pen and immediately alerted local animal control, she said. The New York Times.
Six days later, an agency investigator came to check on the cows and found them missing from Gregson’s farm.
But when the farmer asked if they could be returned, Murphy refused.
After legal advice, she asked for proof that Gregson owned the animals, in addition to $2,500 in payment for nine days of hay, straw and care.
On July 25, Gregson, a former police officer, arrived at the reserve, accompanied by an animal control investigator and members of his family to negotiate.
Things didn’t go well.
“I’m coming to get the animals,” Gregson said, according to video of the conversation filmed by Murphy.
“No, you’re not coming to pick up the animals,” the vegan activist replied.
Murphy then suggested an alternative solution: that she would buy Gregson’s cows.
After weeks of wrangling and noisy protests, Gregson finally managed to get his cows back. But only after the dispute had sparked an ugly war of words between the two parties
Murphy posted Gregson’s home address and phone number on Facebook. Both parties say they have received death threats as a result of the dispute
That never happened and she did not voluntarily return them when the farmer showed receipts that he was the owner of the cows.
She then enlisted the help of the crowd and posted a video of her and the animals, whom she had renamed Little Willow and Ismael, telling her 22,000 followers that the police were “violating my civil rights.”
Murphy also posted Gregson’s home address and phone number.
It wasn’t long before the farmer began receiving phone calls threatening to rape and kill his children, according to court documents from the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office.
Protesters gathered outside her sanctuary, Asha’s Farm, as a procession of cars and tractors thundered past, honking and carrying signs reading “Nacho Cows” and “Heifer Hider.”
A biker was doing donut dances in Murphy’s backyard.
Others left messages on Facebook calling for her to be lynched.
Two days after the protest, five officers, all colleagues of Gregson, executed a search warrant at Asha Farm and arrested Murphy.
Hornee and Blackee were then taken by truck to an undisclosed location, amid fears for their safety.
Murphy appeared in court that evening in shackles and was charged with third-degree robbery, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
The judge imposed a gag order on her, prohibiting her from posting any content, on any topic, on social media.
Others spoke out on her behalf.
When Oscar winner Phoenix wrongly learned through misinformation on social media that Murphy had named the cows after him [she does have two other cows named Joaquin and Phoenix] He released a statement to local newspapers.
“It is astonishing to punish a woman so harshly when she was only kind to two individuals who had trespassed on her property,” he said.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix, a famous vegan, even weighed in because he mistakenly believed Murphy named the cows after him
However, most people in Newfane disagreed.
Jim Bittner, a Niagara County Farm Bureau board member and fruit grower, wrote in a letter to the Union-Sun & Journal: “Two cows wandered onto Asha’s property. The Asha owners know who the cows belong to but refuse to return them. Let that sink in for a moment. This is just plain wrong.”
Local rancher Ed Pettit said, “I’m concerned that they think they have the moral right to confiscate animals that come onto their property and then make it as difficult as possible for the rancher to get them back. I don’t want that to continue.”
But it did.
One morning, 50 chickens mysteriously disappeared from the farm of Kimberly Simmeth, a local resident.
Two days earlier, she had criticized an event by Right to Rescue, an activist group that visits farms to “free suffering animals.”
The event was organized by Wayne Hsiung, a leading animal rights activist and recently hired member of Murphy’s legal team.
Murphy was one of the keynote speakers, invited by Hsiung.
That same week, another local rancher, Paul Strobel, saw two trespassers sneak around his cattle fence and film his livestock.
He gave chase, but they managed to escape.
Strobel blamed Murphy for bringing the rustlers to Newfane, adding that if she went unpunished, there would be “all-out war” against the ranchers.
Murphy said it had nothing to do with her.
Meanwhile, Hsiung’s law license was revoked after he was convicted of trespassing on a California ranch last November.
Gregson arrived at Murphy’s sanctuary to try to get his animals back nine days after they went missing, leading to a tense confrontation where the vegan refused to give them back.
Locals were quick to side with Gregson, staging protests outside Murphy’s with men dressed in cow suits while others grilled steaks to denounce the vegan
He no longer represents Murphy.
Newfane County Judge Bruce Barnes, who imposed the gag order, recused himself from the case in September after Murph’s attorney argued that a 2020 interaction between the judge and the defendant on Match.com called into question Barnes’ fair judgment.
The gag order was lifted and Murphy’s charge was reduced to a misdemeanor of petty theft, which still carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
In May, the activist rejected a plea deal that would have seen her sentenced to a suspended sentence for disturbing public order, which would have spared her the immediate threat of a prison sentence.
Murphy took issue with a clause that required her to admit it was wrong to fight for the animals’ conservation.
She did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com, but has previously maintained her innocence.
As for Hornee and Blackee, they will play no further part in this sad saga. Shortly after Gregson collected the cows from Asha’s Farm, he sold them to slaughter.