Vienna, Manorville cow that escaped farm, has been caught

Vienna, the Manorville cow that made herself at home on a golf course after bolting from a farm in August, has finally been caught, rescuers said Thursday.

The black and white Herford-Angus cross, who weighs around 1,000 pounds, will now live out her days at the Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue in Wantage, New Jersey — joining another Long Island bovine escapee, Hannibal (formerly known as Barney the Bull), who famously fled imminent slaughter in the Mastic-Moriches area before he, too, was caught.

Vienna's rescue comes more than three months after she fled from Luigi Zollo’s farm, which has livestock for petting zoos and slaughter, on Wading River Road on Aug. 27.

Shortly after the cow escaped, a golfer at the nearby Pine Hills Golf and Country Club caught her on video walking on the fairway.

This allowed Frankie Floridia of Strong Island Animal Rescue, whose help Zollo enlisted, and Mike Stura of Skylands Animal Sanctuary to focus their efforts on the golf club, where they set up their equipment, including a 1,000-square-foot corral baited with alfalfa and sweet grain.

"We watched on the cameras," Floridia said. "Just sitting, waiting for her to come in" — night after night, with no heat, and no talking.

Said another rescuer, Karen Boris Johnson: “She spent most of her days in the woods. Every evening she’d come out to eat, and she wandered the area where we were set up, going onto the green and grazing, sometimes for an hour before heading back into the woods to spend the night."

About two weeks ago, Stura said, Vienna lay down in the pen, which suggested the herd animal was lonely.

As Floridia noted, summertime grass was vanishing, increasing her need for the water and feed Eddie Stepinski, who often works with Floridia, brought every night.

Then Wednesday night, Vienna was lured into the corral. As they waited in their vehicles, Floridia and Stura pulled an outer and an inner gate shut with ropes from around 100 feet away.

Equipped with “rattle paddles” to shake in case Vienna leapt out — as she did once before — Floridia and Johnson stood on either side of the enclosure as Stura guided her into a trailer. Rattle paddles, filled with seeds or BBs, are used to sort cattle.

Zollo had previously agreed to send Vienna to the refuge in Wantage, where she was awaiting a veterinary checkup on Thursday.

Stura on Thursday praised the golf club for its cooperation.

The golf club “was really fantastic,” Stura said. After all, a cow’s hooves could have dug up divots.

“They kind of gave us carte blanche,” letting the rescuers come and go as needed, he said.

Tara Bernhardt, a spokeswoman for the Commack-based Heatherwood Corporation, which owns and runs the golf course, said "We cherish our neighbors wherever we're at and this just was a very unique case."

"The cow was really living its best life," she added. "The cow just wanted to get out and see the world."