Free To Be Me Animal Sanctuary’s Willy the Wonder Cow — born with a facial defect that made him stand out from other cattle — has died.
The animal sanctuary euthanized the steer on April 6 after it stopped eating, explained owner Louanne Shropshire. Willy had started to grow and the difference between his nose and jaw became more pronounced, making it difficult for him to chew and eat. His four stomachs also began to shut down.
“We were devastated (about his death). We did everything we could for him,” she said.
It was a difficult decision to put down Willy, Shropshire continued. She sat with him for two days while attempting to get him to eat. She even hand-picked green grass for him to consume; she joked it’s difficult to find ripe grass so early in April. The veterinarian also brought out silage for Willy to consume, but that didn’t help.
The vet thought Willy could be fed with a feeding tube directly into his stomachs, but the food came back up. This led the vet to believe the steer might have a possible abnormality.
“There was nothing else we could do. I wish every day there was something else,” Shropshire said, “because he was a sweet, loveable guy.
“I miss Willy kisses so much,” she laughed. “He used to take my whole head in his mouth. Kids would go, ‘Ew, mom!’ I said, ‘I love his kisses.’”
The animal sanctuary had Willy for a year after his previous owners gave him up. They couldn’t look after him since they operate a 200-head cow-calf pair operation.
Shropshire pointed out Willy needed specialized care and plenty of nurturing. She and other staff spent up to four hours a day with him, prepared his feed buckets and groomed him.
Willy drew plenty of attention while he was living and when he died, said Shropshire. Most visitors took a liking to him, but some people were taken aback at his facial deformity and suggested he should be put down. When he died, several media outlets wrote stories about him, including CTV and an Edmonton newspaper.
For more information about Free To Be Me Animal Sanctuary, visit the organization's Facebook page.
