(CNN) — The fate of Frank Lee the bull has gone from dinner plate to sanctuary — thanks to comedian Jon Stewart and his wife.
The Angus bull — dubbed Frank Lee after an Alcatraz prison escapee — made a run for freedom Friday during transport to a slaughterhouse in Jamaica, New York.
Following his instincts, the bull ditched out of a truck and ran to the closest pasture — a green space on the campus of York College.
Video from CNN affiliate WABC shows NYPD officers trying to wrangle the bull there — at one point shooting a tranquillizer dart at the animal.
Eventually, Frank was subdued and transported to the Animal Care Center in Brooklyn.
His daring dash to freedom caught the attention of the former “Daily Show” comedian Jon Stewart and his wife, Tracey. She’s an animal advocate and bestselling author of a book about living alongside creatures great and small.
Members of Farm Sanctuary notified them about the animal’s plight, said Sylvia Moskovitz with the Watkins Glen shelter in New York. The organization negotiated a voluntary release for the bull.
The Stewarts drove up from their Bufflehead Farm in New Jersey to meet Frank in Brooklyn. A Facebook post by Farm Sanctuary shows Jon Stewart feeding Frank and saying “everyone likes hay.”
His next ride will be to Bufflehead Farm — a 12-acre piece of land in Middletown Township.
But with freedom comes a price.
After spending the weekend at the Stewart family farm, Frank will be transported to Cornell University Hospital for Animals. His routine checkup will end in castration, according to Moskovitz. The bull will become a steer.
And his new life will be no joke. The Watkins Glen facility has 175 acres of rolling pastures and at least 50 other bovines on the premises
Frank will have plenty of room to live out his days grazing and under protection.
