Seven sheep escape from New Jersey slaughterhouse, find new sanctuary home

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Animal control officers in New Jersey said seven sheep found running loose after an apparent slaughterhouse escape will have a new permanent home at a sanctuary.

Paterson Animal Control said a call came in about 5 a.m. Monday reporting that several sheep were wandering the city streets.

An officer responded to the are and found only one sheep, which was brought to the city's shelter.

A second call around 6:30 a.m. led to three more sheep being rounded up.

"They were difficult to catch," animal control Officer John DeCando told TAPinto Paterson. "But with the help of snare poles, the team was able to apprehend the runaways. One was put inside a police car, another in the animal shelter truck, and the third inside another police vehicle before they were taken to the shelter."

A fifth sheep was captured outside a Sealy Mattress store in Paterson and another was found attempting to enter a nearby Dunkin' Donuts.

The seventh sheep wandered all the way to Fair Lawn before being safely rounded up.

DeCando said the sheep likely escaped from a River Street slaughterhouse.

"I don't know where they came from, but I know exactly where they're going," DeCando told NorthJersey.com. "They're going to be safe."

Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in Wantage agreed to give the runaway sheep a new permanent home.

"They'll be quarantined," a Skylands representative told WABC-TV. "The vet will come and check them, and he'll give them the OK, whatever they need, any vaccines, anything. And then they'll join our forty-three other sheep with their own nice big barn."