Karen (formerly named Daisy May) and Buttercup (formerly Glitter) are survivors from the former Twist of Fate "sanctuary". Karen/Daisy May is the black cow with the white mark on her forehead (above left) and Buttercup/Glitter is light brown (above right).
In a slight continuation from the last story about mini horse Bernie, I have been looking for Karen and Buttercup for a while! It's one of the reasons why they're among the last of the animals' stories that I am sharing, though I have always tried to vary the stories based on a few factors: species, the sanctuaries that took in the survivors, and whether or not the animal survived or did not. Buttercup and Karen weren't nearly as hard to find as Bernie was though - it was more like I was just kind of bad at it...
For a long time I didn't have any photos of Glitter. I had no idea what she looked like or how she came to be at the former Twist of Fate because Ashley DiFelice didn't have any posts about her on the old TOF Patreon.
On the other hand, Daisy May arrived to TOF in February/March of 2019. Someone had posted some photos from a kill lot where they were picking up some horses and there were a few cows in the photos. Some had been purchased, but Ashley couldn't get Daisy's sweet face out of her head and decided to bring her home. The next post about her is 2 days later, with a photo of her on a trailer and headed to quarantine. That is the last post of her that I or anyone else has access to. Ashley probably posted more about her on the TOF Instagram or Facebook, but we'll likely never know. So after February 2019, I have no idea about Daisy's time there.
The survivor sheet has her age at about 5 years old and she's listed as a mini angus. I did some research on angus cows, and once again my research proved to be disturbing and triggering. Angus cows originated in Scotland and are the top breed exploited and murdered for their flesh in the United States and are one of the most popular in other parts of the world. At first I only skimmed the headlines when I Googled it, but one of the sites is quoted with this: "Angus are renowned as a carcass breed. They are used widely in crossbreeding to improve carcass quality and milking ability". I decided to click on the article to paint an even more detailed and colorful picture. Here is another quote about their maternal instincts: "The Angus cow does her job well, whether it’s her first or her fourteenth calf." In other words, the cows are mothers and are just as upset at having their children ripped away from them at the 14th baby as they are the first. It also sounds like this is good news to garbage humans who have no qualms about using, abusing, and killing animals? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be used and abused for either my body or my ability to breastfeed. Why would any animal? Oh and also we have a "man" named Hugh Watson to "thank" for all of this cruelty. (All above italics are mine).
I mentioned this in my last update, but Triple 7 Rescue & Rehab sent me all of her photos from the first few days that she was on scene after news of Ashley's deliberate cruelty surfaced. Among them, I found a photo of a light brown cow in a field. She didn't match any of the other surviving cows (Lilac, Runner, Blitzen, Cupid, Herbie, Tricky, Cosmo, or Yarrow, and definitely not longhorns Cecil and Hazel or Brahmans Mintaka, Rigel, and Betelgeuse*). So by process of elimination - could this be Glitter? I asked around, but no one was sure.
Also among the photos that Triple 7 sent, I saw one of Daisy about knee-deep in mud on the site of the former TOF. The survivor sheet had almost no info on Glitter, just listing her as a female and that she had a tag that read 8690 in her right ear. Her body score wasn't listed, but Daisy's was a 5. Both Daisy and Glitter looked okay due to the fact that Ashley had abandoned them in a field with lush grass that was still replenishing itself, unlike other fields on the property.
On the list of survivors it was stated that Daisy May and Glitter went to a place called The Cow Sanctuary. However, I had a hard time figuring out what/where that was - I combed through any and every Instagram account that could have been them, I searched Google, and I just wasn't sure. So I put off the story of Daisy and Glitter to revisit later and moved on to others. I came back to it here and there and I'd ask around too. It was a very similar story to Bernie/Kuma - no one had any photos, no one was sure where they went, etc. I found a website for The Cow Sanctuary, but there weren't really any posts. The main page was the story of how a woman named Helga started the sanctuary. In chatting with Triple 7 I got confirmation that this was the same woman who took in Daisy May & Glitter. I then asked around for any possible contact info for her so that I could reach out and find out how the two girls were doing. I didn't get any replies with her info, but I eventually realized that her email address and phone number were listed on one of the pages on the website! I can't believe I never saw it before, haha - kind of like when you push on a door that is clearly marked "pull". Oops!
I reached out to Helga and we ended up chatting on the phone for a bit. I read her the captions of Ashley's old Patreon posts about Daisy and emailed her all the photos I had of her. I also emailed her the photo I had of Glitter just to confirm that it was her. Helga told me the girls' new names and that they were doing great with her. Karen walks a little stiffly and was told that she was suffering from a "mysterious cow disease that a lot of them get." She was told that if a cow that has this lives to be 3 or 4 that they will probably make it, and Karen was already about 5 years old at the time. Helga also emailed me some recent photos of them, which are the photos posted above.
Because Helga and The Cow Sanctuary do not have any social media I wanted to make sure to include updated photos of Karen and Buttercup so that everyone could see that they're doing okay. Helga says that she doesn't really do a whole lot online in general, but she does have a website where you can read the sanctuary's origin story (it's a very interesting read!), media articles of Helga and her work, and you can also donate towards the care of Buttercup and Karen if you would like.
Thank you to Triple 7 for your help in tracking down these girls and Bernie, and thank you to Helga for your help in writing this story and for taking in these girls and giving them such a great life full of love.
Thank you all for reading! I only have a few of the animal's stories left to share, so please stay tuned for those, as well as they summary of her February 22nd court appearance.
*All of these cows have had their stories shared and they are linked at the bottom of the original petition page here.
To learn more about how the dairy industry uses and abuses cows, 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. Remember: animals are here WITH us, NOT for us.
Ashley DiFelice's next court date is February 22nd. Please continue to share the petition while we all wait! Thank you.