A live nativity scene... what can go wrong?
Well, last week, these two calves in North Carolina got tired of playing their roles in one church's nativity scene, so they fled!
After fleeing the scene at Seaside Chapel in the community of Carolina Beach, the pair escaped to a nearby state park.
Authorities were alerted, and the chase was on!
The Carolina Beach Police Department posted on Facebook:
When you're a police officer in a small island community, you may get some unusual calls. Such was the case yesterday as officers from the CBPD were dispatched to assist the CB State Park Rangers with rounding up some loose cows!
The pastor's wife, Dana Vess, only realized the calves were missing when police knocked on their door and told them the actors were on the run – she had no idea how they could have escaped.
The actors turned fugitives were on the run for almost 16 hours before they were found and brought back safely.
Of course, there is some outrage about the incident...
An activist's letter was sent to the pastor, Jerry Vess, which said:
Please, to prevent future tragedies, will you stop using live animals in your events? Your sets and church members provide a perfectly lovely attraction on their own. Christian teachings are all about kindness — yet animals used in live Nativity scenes aren't treated with compassion. They're often stressed from transport and from being in a strange environment … they may be chained or confined to small holding pens.
In response, Dana Vess told Port City Daily that the animals are all well cared for. They are kept in roomy pens, not chained, and are constantly fed well with their usual food. Dana explained that the animals are provided by local farmers who bring them to the church on two weekends for the Nativity scene and that they go back home to their farms between "performances."
The farmers deliver them and pick them up, check the pens and make sure they're secure — it's their animals, so they want to ensure everything's good.
For the subsequent performances, the pastor and his wife decided to set up the Nativity scene with only donkeys and sheep.
The two calves had enough limelight for one season.
