UPDATE: July 1, 2014 at 12:42 p.m.
The woman attempting to buy Panda, the steer badly burned last fall during an act of animal cruelty, says the owners have decided not to sell, but there is a possibility they could resume negotiations.
Marcy Christmas wants to keep the animal from heading to terminal auction at this month's Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles. She offered to buy Panda last week so he could be relocated to an animal sanctuary in Grass Valley, Calif.
"They are going to show the [steer] because it could win grand champion or something," said Christmas, referring to a phone call she said she had with the father of the student who owns it. If it were to win that distinction, it could fetch far more money, she says.
She says the offer still stands on her end and is hopeful the owners will change their minds.
Original story:
There is an offer on the table this evening to keep a steer from being sold at auction at the upcoming Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles, CA. The steer, known as Panda, was badly burned in an act of animal cruelty last fall.
A Central Coast woman concerned with the fate of the animal says that she wanted to purchase the steer at auction.
“I just felt that as human beings, we can’t set fire to a cow and then fatten it up and send it to slaughter. There has to be some mercy here for something,” said Marcy Christmas.
Christmas found Animal Place, an animal sanctuary in Grass Valley, CA. They agreed to take the steer. Kim Sturla, Director of Animal Place, says she hoped they would be able to take the animal in.
“My deep emotional reaction, [was] ‘Yea, I want to save his life.’ So I told Marcy that we would take Panda in if she could negotiate his release,” said Sturla.
Christmas says she cannot bid on the steer because it is set for terminal auction, meaning it can only be purchased for slaughter.
She is still hoping to negotiate with the animal’s owner, a high school FFA student.