A bull, an ostrich and a wallaby in New York City? It’s not a joke: These are the animals that have been rescued in NYC
From backyards to basements, one man is on a mission to save the city’s most surprising, and sometimes illegal, animal residents.
Heard the one about the bull, the ostrich and the wallaby in New York? No, it’s not a joke, rather just some of the unexpected animals that have been rescued in and around the Big Apple. And that’s only by one man.
Runaway bull saved before police killing
You may already be familiar with the story of a Long Island bull that escaped on the eve of being slaughtered in 2023. The runaway bovine was finally found in Suffolk County two months on the run and was on the cusp of being shot by the police when John Di Leonardo intervened to arrange for it to be taken to a sanctuary. “Bully Joel” has since been given a freer, permanent home.
Di Leonardo is Humane Long Island’s executive director and anthrozoologist. His organisation alone claims to be responsible for saving 1,200 animals a year in Long Island and parts of New York City, and anything between “a handful” and 200 a week, he told the New York Post.
Bulls and cows are among the most common creatures saved, although the list is impressively eclectic.
Wallaby and ostrich rescued from criminal hands
Also in 2023, Di Leonardo played a role in an undercover operation to rescue a wallaby, a small kangaroo, that was confiscated from its “owner” on the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn.
“We actually got a call about him being exploited in Madison Square Park. There was a guy charging money for pictures,” Di Leonardo said of “Jackie Legs,” now living a “much more natural life.”
Last year came one of Humane Long Island’s most distressing missions. Di Leonardo was tasked with saving over 100 exotic animals, including a South African ostrich, that were being kept inside an individual’s basement in Bellmore, Long Island.
The owner of the home was hit with fines totaling thousands of dollars by the authorities for holding the animals illegally.
“It (the ostrich) was huge at 5 months old — almost as tall as me,” Di Leonardo revealed. “She was surrounded by venomous reptiles, and I’m sure she was terrified.”
Fear of humans subsides after rescue
Fear remains one of the animals’ principal emotions after being saved, the animal rescuer explains. “They’ve never known a human touch to be a good thing. So when they come, they’re often terrified.”
As the old saying goes, however, time is the best healer. “After a couple of days or maybe a couple of weeks, they realize that we’re here to love them and care for them. Many of them become very social and will follow us around and crave our attention.”
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