Lilac and Runner are a beautiful zebu cow mother and daughter from the former Twist of Fate.
Lilac was originally rescued from a breeder in January of 2020 by Ashley DiFelice. Zebu cows are a breed that originated in South Asia and differ in appearance from most cattle breeds due to the fatty hump on their shoulders, large dewlap (the loose skin that hangs under the neck), and sometimes large and/or drooping ears. They also have horns and looser skin and are typically used for milk, their flesh, or as draft animals (work animals). It's so sad and unfortunate that these beautiful animals are so used, abused, and disrespected like this.
In December of 2019 Ashley had pulled two zebu bulls from a kill pen - they were getting ready to be weighed for slaughter when she stepped in to rescue them. She already had a zebu at the former Twist of Fate that her son Deacon had named Hump*, who had been saved from slaughter around the beginning of 2019. Once they adopted Hump she wanted to look for other zebus to be his friends.
The two zebu bulls pulled in Dec 2019 went to quarantine before coming home. Ashley posted about one of them in January 2020 but did not post about either of them again on the old TOF Patreon, so I didn't know until now, writing this, that they had been named Cosmo and Yarrow**, and it was only after matching up photos that I was able to correctly identify them.
Lilac also spent time in quarantine before coming to TOF. As soon as she was unloaded from the trailer, the two zebu bulls started calling to her, so it's believed that they all knew each other! According to Ashley's post Lilac possibly could've even been the mom to one of them. They all perked up and started talking back and forth, which is really sweet. Cows are herd animals, which means that they love companionship and bond deeply with other cows.
While in quarantine Lilac wasn't putting on weight like she should've been and so a vet was called out to do some exams and run some tests...it turns out that she was pregnant! Her diet was adjusted accordingly and Lilac started getting healthier.
It was exciting news that Lilac could finally KEEP one of her babies - in the dairy industry the mothers are forcibly impregnated over and over and the babies are taken from them. The baby girls are raised and put into the same impregnate-birth-milking line as their mothers, and the baby boys are either sold to become "veal" or immediately killed because baby boys have been deemed "useless" by the dairy industry. They are typically killed with a bullet to the head, which doesn't always work and leaves the babies to suffer and bleed out, writhing in pain and crying for their mothers until they die. Babies in the dairy industry are separated from their mothers so that the farmers can collect and sell the milk that is meant to feed the babies to humans for consumption. The mothers and babies will cry out for days, grieving and looking for each other. If you have ever heard this, it is one of the most sad and haunting sounds that I have ever heard. Cows are mammals, like humans, and therefore only make milk when they become pregnant, like humans. This is news to a lot of people - I was close to 40 years old when I found out that cows don't just "magically make milk!" To learn more about the dairy industry, you can watch 'Milked' on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, or AppleTV. As of the publication of this article, you can watch the entire movie for free on Vimeo. You can also watch this 5 minute video on YouTube.
Ashley didn't post about Lilac again until November of 2021, but it was believed that Lilac was around 2 months away from giving birth when she was rescued, so that puts the baby's arrival around April-May of 2020. The baby, a girl, was named Runner. A photo of them together (pictured above) was the last post she made for them on Patreon. Lilac is on the right and Runner is on the left.
Baby Runner and Mama Lilac were in a field that had lush seeded grass so they had access to something to eat and as a result they thankfully had good body scores when they were found. Both were adopted to a private home together as companion animals/pets and were dewormed and given vaccinations and hoof trims. They have huge fields to run around in and are well cared for and happy. Thank you to their adopters for taking them in and giving them such a wonderful home.
And thank you for being here.
*Regarding Hump, he passed away sometime in 2020/2021 at a hospital before all of Ashley's cruelty and neglect started.
**Cosmo and Yarrow will have their stories shared soon as well - it will be very similar to this one and have a lot of the same info but I'll be able to post a photo of them!
(Normally I would have directed you to the sanctuary that adopted them in order to see updated photos, but these two went to a private home so that information is not available. I do have more current photos of Lilac and Runner as well as all of the animals that I have shared so far. Since change.org only allows one photo per update, you can see these additional photos on my Instagram. I share the published updates in my stories about a few hours to a day after they're published and then I'll make a reel for the animal(s) as well. The stories are then saved to my 'Petition' highlights in my bio.)
Ashley's next court date is October 12th.
Please continue to share the petition across all channels. (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, NextDoor, YouTube, WeChat, Telegram, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, etc, and please send it directly to people via email and/or text). If you have already shared it, please share it again.
We are trying to get as many signatures and comments on the petition as possible before then, especially since the prosecution and the judge are aware of it. Thank you!!