Here’s what happened to the bull at Newark Penn Station

🐂 A bull who wandered onto the Northeast Corridor tracks was taken to a sanctuary

🐂 The sanctuary has named him and making sure he's healthy

🐂 Newark police have not disclosed how the bull wound up on the tracks

The bull who trotted along the Northeast Corridor tracks, making it to Newark Penn Station Thursday morning has a new home and a name.

NJ Transit and Amtrak trains were delayed as police tried to capture the bull, now named Ricardo, who was seen on video on the Northeast Corridor tracks at Newark Penn Station and photographed standing under the platform at the station. He was soon cornered in a parking lot, tranquilized by Newark police and taken away in an animal carrying trailer.

Mike Stura, the owner and founder of Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in Wantage, said his phone was blowing up as news spread about the bull. Too bad it was on silent at first.

"Then I started getting texts and messages on Facebook Messenger. I mean, all of a sudden, it just was like a flood, which it always is when there's big animals," Stura told New Jersey 101.5. "I started making a bunch of phone calls to try and figure out who would be heading up this, so that I could basically plead for his life so they wouldn't shoot him or they wouldn't send them back to a slaughterhouse or anywhere else."

Newark police said Ricardo was first spotted on Frelinghuysen Avenue near Victoria Street but did not disclose where he was before that.

Naming the bull

Stura got in his truck and headed to Newark even before knowing if he'd be bringing Ricardo back to his sanctuary. Once he arrived, he made contact with Newark police whom he described as being very helpful and cooperative.

"One policeman, whose first name was Ricardo, was very helpful in letting me know where they were, where the animal was, where he would be, and then when they finally tranquilized him where I could meet them. I asked him his first name, he told me, and that's why I named the animal Ricardo," Stura said.

Ricardo was still shaking off the effects of the tranquilizer Thursday night and did not stand up. By Friday morning, he was up and around.

"He's up and he looks very perky and very aware, and he's eating well and drinking well, which is beautiful," Stura said.

An idyllic life

Stura said he will be quarantined until he gets a clean bill of health from a veterinarian. The vet will also be making sure that all the stress from Thursday doesn't lead to a case of "shipping fever."

"In the meantime, we will get to know him a little bit, see what his demeanor is, his size outside of the trailer and trying to gauge which group of animals he should go with," Stura said. "We have one group of 13 animals that I think he might be perfect for. He'll go with them or whichever group and then he will, nothing will be expected of him except for him to be healthy and happy."

Stura has been a vegetarian since 1995 and said Thursday's events could have been avoided if people considered his dietary path.

"You don't have to give anything from your pocket. You don't have to go out of your way. You don't have to do anything. Just abstain from things that cause harm to innocent beings," Stura said.

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