First it was Staten Island Chuck, a beloved groundhog he murdered in 2014 at the New York City Zoo. Two years later it was a young buck, a one-antlered whitetail he left to die in the custody of Harlem Animal Control. And today it was a cow, a raging bull that led police on a dangerous bovine chase in the streets of Queens.
With his questionable record, Bill de Blasio isn’t qualified to be a dog-catcher, let alone mayor of New York City. If he can’t keep nature out of the city humanely, the governor’s political career needs to be put down.
It was never supposed to be this way. On the campaign trail in 2013, de Blasio made animal cruelty part of his platform, promising to help ease the burden of horses who cart around tourists on New York City’s streets. At the time, the aspiring mayor slammed the famous carriages as “inhumane.”
And it worked. A group of equine lovers launched a $1 million ad buy against one of his opponents. Animal lovers held fundraisers on the Upper West side. “He just gets animal cruelty,” Mary Max of the Humane Society told the New York Times. “This isn’t somebody who we have to convince.” Of course, that was before de Blasio’s furry body count started to pile up.
Now it’s not clear what fate awaits the cattle in Queens. As of press time, New York’s finest had apprehended and taken the animal into custody. Initial reports suggest that the cow was escaping from a nearby slaughterhouse. Now one wonders if the piece of beef would’ve been safer with the butcher than the mayor of New York.
Or maybe, this escaping Io offers a chance at redemption for de Blasio. Of course, he can’t undo what’s already done. That deer will never find a family and the groundhog will never see its shadow. But perhaps de Blasio can atone for his past sins. If he’s interested, he should let the cow run free.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
