Cupid and Blitzen are cows that were rescued from the former Twist of Fate "sanctuary". Cupid is in the two photos on the left above, and Blitzen is in the two photos on the right.
Cupid is a Holstein and Blitzen is a Jersey. Holsteins and Jerseys are both exploited most often for their breastmilk for the dairy industry, and then in about 5 years are murdered for their flesh. A cow's average natural lifespan is not 5 years, it's twenty. Cows are mammals, like humans, and therefore only make milk when they become pregnant, just 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 this 5 minute video on YouTube. You can also 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.
Cupid originally came to Twist of Fate in December 2020. Leanne from Goats of Anarchy reached out to Ashley DiFelice to ask her if she could possibly take in a little calf from a local dairy farm. At the time Cupid was only 5 days old and had already been torn apart from his mother, as is the case with every baby and every mother at every dairy farm. Had Ashley not stepped in, the little calf would have been been sold for his flesh (aka, where "veal" comes from). Cupid spent his days at the dairy farm chained to a wall (again, this is also standard practice on most dairy farms), but instead got to leave those horrors behind. Ashley's young son Deacon was immediately enamored with the baby and was the one who named him Cupid because of the white heart-shaped marking on his forehead.
Three months prior to that one of Twist of Fate's haulers was picking up some animals at an auction and spotted a little brown calf that was also only a couple of days old that was all alone without his mother and was being sold for a few dollars. The hauler asked Ashley if she would take the calf and offered to keep him in the meantime to bottle feed him until he was a little older. She did, and the calf was dropped off with Ashley at Twist of Fate at the end of December in 2020, about a month after Cupid arrived. Deacon named the new baby boy Blitzen.
Aside from their initial arrival posts and a few others within a 2 week span for Cupid, there were no other posts about either Cupid or Blitzen after that on the old TOF Patreon.
Cupid and Blitzen were on the list of survivors when the sanctuaries and authorities stepped in to rescue the animals that survived Ashley's neglect and abuse. Their body scores were not listed, but from looking at video and photo posts they didn't look too bad since they had been in a field with a few other cows where they had access to lush grass to eat, purely by chance.
The last of the rescued TOF animals to be placed in new homes were 6 cows, and bonded friends Blitzen and Cupid were among them. I have mentioned this before, but after what Ashley had done to the animals was discovered she was supposed to be feeding and caring for the animals on the property for the next few days, a week, etc until they were all placed into new homes. I am told that she did this for a very brief little bit and then to absolutely no one's surprise, she stopped. She didn't lift a finger, she didn't even show up. The people who had fed and watered 100+ animals in the first few hours and days, cleaned up the massive mess on the property, in the house, and in all the outbuildings, arranged to remove the dead bodies, cleaned up the bones from the bodies that had already decomposed and were scattered everywhere, hauled garbage bag after garbage bag, grieved the animals who passed, grieved the end of a friendship, mourned her betrayal, sobbed uncontrollably, broke down, acquired PTSD, fainted, got sick, got angry, placed the 100+ animals, and left their own sanctuaries, animals, spouses, and children to do all of this WERE ALSO tasked with driving back to care for the remaining 6 cows in the meantime when ASHLEY was the one that was supposed to be doing it. Unbelievable, and yet still not at all surprising considering the type of person that she is and the horrific things that she is capable of. I still can't fathom that she TOOK animals with her AND that she is pleading "not guilty" to her numerous crimes of animal cruelty and abuse. Not only did she show ZERO regard for the animals that she claimed to "love", but she also showed ZERO regard for the numerous people that once called her a friend.
The other 4 cows that remained on the TOF property with Cupid and Blitzen were Heartbreaker (Herbie) and Trickertreater (Tricky), who are now at Gratitude Gate (@gratitude_gate), and longhorns Cecil and Ladybug (Hazel)*, who went to live at Catskill Animal Sanctuary (@catskill_animal_sanctuary).
Blitzen and Cupid were officially surrendered to The Riley Farm (@therileyfarmrescue), who took in 6 animals from the TOF case, and Blitzen and Cupid were eventually placed into a private home together. Since they're at a private home I don't have any recent photos of them, but I wanted to be sure to include both of their baby pics as well as an image of each of them all grown up, which is what I did in the photo above. We're so happy that they survived and get to live out the rest of their lives together!
These two boys were very fortunate though, unlike millions of other cows every year. Cupid and Blitzen are boys, and baby boys in the dairy industry 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 while they slowly 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. Please make kind and cruelty-free choices with your food, beverages, personal & home products, clothing, and entertainment. For a list of resources and tips, please click here to read.
Thank you for being here.
*You can read the stories of Cecil & Hazel and Tricky, and Herbie will have his story shared very soon!
Prior to publishing this story I checked to see if Ashley's next court date has been scheduled, and sadly it has not. I'll keep you all posted though! In the meantime please continue to share the petition. Thank you!!