Urbanite

There wasn’t supposed to be a happy ending for Denny, a young goat found wandering alone on a Bronx street corner on Wednesday.

The one-and-a-half-year-old goat was likely headed for the slaughterhouse before he wrangled free and was found by police officers with the 40th Precinct, said Animal Care & Control of NYC spokesperson Richard Gentles.

“People don’t typically lose their pet goat in New York City . They get off the truck, they escape to their freedom and thankfully the officers found him,” Gentles said.

For now, Denny – who is light gray and weighs 22 pounds – is being cared for at the agency’s Manhattan shelter at 326 East 110th Street, but Gentles says he’ll soon move toward greener pastures.

Shelter workers have contacted farm sanctuaries upstate to arrange for Denny to be taken in by local farmers.

It’s unusual but not unheard of for the city shelters to give refuge to stray farm animals. In July 2006, animal rescue workers found a sheep with bound feet left in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

“With the goats and the sheep, thankfully it’s always a happy ending. The farm sanctuary will take them and farmers will adopt them,” Gentles said.

-- Lauren Johnston