It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town

Looks like the New York Times is rippin’ off its kissin’ cousin, the Boston Globe.

Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Monday’s Globe piece about Green Mountain College being oxymarooned:

Lou the ox is quietly euthanized at Vt. college

Injured animal put down, buried in early morning; second ox’s fate undertermined

The veterinarian came before dawn, and Lou the ox was quietly euthanized.

The decision by the small liberal arts college in Vermont in early October to slaughter its beloved pair of oxen and serve their meat in the campus dining hall had sparked worldwide outrage.

The euthanasia of Lou, who was suffering from an injury, was performed on the campus farm by a large-animal veterinarian between midnight and daybreak Sunday, according to Philip Ackerman-Leist, director of the farm and food project at Green Mountain College, in Poultney, near the border with New York State.

“It was hard for him to get around,” Ackerman-Leist said, adding that with winter approaching things would only get worse. “We wouldn’t want to see him suffer anymore.”

The other ox, Bill, remains at Green Mountain’s Cerridwen Farm, according to the Globe report. “Ackerman-Leist said he was not sure whether Bill would go back to work ‘as a single ox or not.'”

He also said Lou was buried at an undisclosed location off campus.

Tuesday’s Times piece about the same:

A Casualty Amid Battle to Save College Oxen

A working ox named Lou, who in recent weeks became arguably his species’ most prominent representative, died on Sunday in pastoral Vermont, euthanized after his impending slaughter stirred a face-off between sustainable farmers in the state and animal rights advocates from around the world.

For Green Mountain College, where Lou tilled the fields with his teammate, a second ox named Bill, this was never the plan. After about 10 years at the college, Lou sustained an injury to his right rear hock over the summer. The college decided to slaughter both animals and serve them in the dining hall, viewing the action as an execution of the college’s sustainable-farming mission . . .

But, of course, that didn’t work out. Then again, this did:

Bill will remain at Green Mountain College, which said in its statement that he will “receive care consistent with appropriate livestock practices.”

Note the link above: The Times reported on this oxycontention two weeks ago.

So . . . whose ox is being gored here?

You tell us.

UPDATE: As you can see in Sweet Jane’s comment below, the Globe had the original story several days before the Times did. The hardwincing staff thanks her, apologizes to the Globe.