Newfane, N.Y. (WBEN) - An arrest was made in Newfane on Tuesday after the owner of Asha's Farm Sanctuary refused to return cows that wandered onto her property back to the owner.
Tracy Murphy, 59, of Newfane was charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a "Class D" felony.
Back on July 25, Troopers out of the Lockport office responded to Asha's Farm Sanctuary on Coomer Road for a property retrieval of the cows alongside the SPCA and the owner of the two cows, Scott Gregson of McKee Farm, a family-owned beef farm not to far from the sanctuary.
After the founder and operator of Ahsa's Farm Sanctuary, Murphy, refused to return the cows to the owner, a warrant was obtained to retrieve the cows and arrest Murphy. The two cows are now back in possession of the owner.
"When any sort of animal crosses into your property, they're not technically yours, they're somebody else's," said New York State Trooper James O'Callaghan.
"She had claimed that there was an old Town Article 310, the long short of it [the article cited] is you had to have your animals fenced in and different things like that. The criteria wasn't met, for these cows for that law to be in place. The owner of the cattle did have a fence, it was not broken, it was in place. Also on the flip side of the coin, she never properly documented anything with the town to start that process."
Murphy was taken in for processing at the State Police office in Lockport and was then transferred to Niagara County Jail for arraignment.