How two lost cows caused an ugly culture war in upstate New York town

Two lost cows have sparked a toxic culture war in a sleepy upstate New York town after a vegan activist allegedly held them hostage at her animal sanctuary.

The bizarre and at times comedic dispute between the local farming community and animal rights campaigners has sparked rowdy protests in Newfane, a usually quiet rural neighborhood in Niagara County.

Protesters dressed in cow costumes have taken to holding meaty barbecues outside the animal rescue to taunt its vegan owner.

Actor and renowned vegan Joaquin Phoenix has intervened in the mistaken belief that the cows were named after him.

An even legal proceedings have taken a peculiar twist, with a judge recusing himself from the case after it was revealed he had previously sent the defendant messages on dating website Match.com.

But the matter has also taken a dark turn, with both sides receiving death threats. The farmer who tried to retrieve his cows has had rape threats directed against his children, court documents claim.

The unseemly feud was triggered when a black cow and a golden brown steer wandered off a farm belonging to Scott Gregson, 44, on July 16, 2022.

The antics of 'Blackee' and 'Hornee' were hardly unusual. But they inadvertently sparked all manner of mischief by stumbling into a neighboring animal sanctuary run by Tracy Murphy, 59.

She herded them into a pen and immediately notified the local animal control agency, she told The New York Times.

Six days later, an investigator with the agency came to check on the cows and learned that they had gone missing from Gregson's farm.

But when the farmer asked that they be returned, Murphy refused.

Following legal advice, she asked for evidence that Gregson owned the animals alongside $2,500 as payment for nine days' worth of hay, straw and care.

On July 25, Gregson, a former state trooper, arrived at the sanctuary alongside an animal control investigator and members of his family to negotiate.

It did not go well.

'I'll come get the animals,' Gregson said, according to a video of the exchange filmed by Murphy.

'No, you're not coming to get the animals,' the vegan activist replied.

Murphy then offered an alternative solution: that she buy the cows off Gregson.

That never happened, nor did she willingly return them after the farmer showed receipts proving he owned the cows.

She then enlisted the mob, posting a video of her and the animals, whom she had renamed Little Willow and Ismael, letting her 22,000 followers know that law enforcement was 'violating my civil rights'.

Murphy also posted Gregson's home address and phone number.

It wasn't long before the farmer started to receive phone calls to his house threatening to rape and kill his children, according to court documents filed by the Niagara County district attorney's office.

Protesters gathered outside her sanctuary, Asha's Farm, as a parade of cars and tractors rolled past, honking their horns and carrying signs reading 'Nacho Cows' and 'Heifer Hider'.

One motorcyclist performed donuts in Murphy's backyard.

Others left Facebook comments calling for her to be lynched.

Two days after the protest, five state troopers, all colleagues of Gregson, executed a search warrant at Asha Farm and arrested Murphy.

Hornee and Blackee were then taken away by truck to a secret location out of fear for their safety.

Murphy appeared in court that evening in chains and was charged with third-degree larceny, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The judge imposed a gag order barring her from posting any content, on any subject, on social media.

Others spoke out on her behalf.

When Oscar winner Phoenix mistakenly learned, through misinformation on social media, that Murphy had renamed the cows after him [she does have two other cows named Joaquin and Phoenix] he released a statement to local newspapers.

'To so harshly punish a woman who was simply showing kindness to two individuals who had wandered onto her property is astounding,' he said.

Most in Newfane disagreed, however.

Niagara County Farm Bureau board member Jim Bittner, a fruit grower, said in a letter to the Union-Sun & Journal. 'Two cows wandered onto Asha's property. The owners of Asha's know who those cows belong to, but refuse to return them. Let that sink in for a minute. This is just plain wrong.'

Local cattle farmer Ed Pettit said: 'My concern is that they believe that they have a moral right to confiscate animals that come onto their property, and then make things as difficult as possible for the farmer to retrieve them. I don't want that to continue.'

Except it did.

One morning 50 chickens mysteriously disappeared from the farm of Kimberly Simmeth, a local resident.

Two days earlier, she had criticized an event held by Right to Rescue, an activist group that enters farms to 'free suffering animals'.

The event had been organized by Wayne Hsiung, a prominent animal rights-activist and recently signed up member of Murphy's legal team.

Murphy had been a keynote speaker, invited by Hsiung.

The same week, another local farmer, Paul Strobel, spotted two trespassers skulking around his cattle gate, filming his livestock.

He gave chase, but they got away.

Strobel blamed Murphy for bringing the cattle rustlers to Newfane, adding it would be 'all-out war' on farmers if she went unpunished.

Murphy has said it had nothing to do with her.

Hsiung, meanwhile, had his law license suspended after he was convicted of trespassing on a Californian farm last November.

He no longer represents Murphy.

Newfane Justice Bruce Barnes, who had imposed the gag order, recused himself from the case in September after Murph's attorney argued after that an interaction between the judge and the defendant on Match.com in 2020 rendered a fair judgment from Barnes questionable.

The gag order was dropped and the charge against Murphy reduced to a misdemeanor of petit larceny, which is still punishable by up to a year in prison.

In May, the activist rejected a plea deal in which she would have been convicted of disorderly conduct with a suspended sentence, thereby avoiding the immediate threat of jail.

Murphy took umbrage with a clause that required her to admit that fighting to keep the animals was wrong.

She did not respond to a request for comment by DailyMail.com, but has previously maintained her innocence.

As for Hornee and Blackee, they will play no further part in this sorry saga. Shortly after Gregson retrieved the cows from Asha's Farm, he sold them to the slaughter.