For those of you waiting with baited breath to find out what happened to Bentley the steer — the cow at the center of the Plain Dealer’s riveting five-part series — we have bad news. His spirit is now in cow heaven, roaming with the the other billion served. And his remains are destined for … well, we’re not sure exactly, but suspect it’s somewhere that specializes in all-beef patties.
Last weekend at the Great Geauga County Fair, the animal-lovers who tried to save Bentley by buying him at auction were outbid — by a lot. Apparently Bentley was one tasty-looking cow, because he sold for $4,185, a handsome sum for a cow that didn’t even win top prizes in the 4-H Club competition.
Sarah Jones and her friends from the “Help Save Bentley” campaign only had $2,927 in donations—which they thought should be plenty, considering that other non-champion steers were bringing in less than $2,000.
But some people clearly didn’t want their red-blooded American tradition to be ruined by a group of soft-hearted yuppies with a MySpace page. The bids kept climbing. The winner was Fair board member Howard Bates, a twist that prompted outrage among the Save Bentley camp.
Jones and her followers are now planning to try to save a lesser-known animal at another 4-H Club auction. And Plain Dealer editors are wracking their brains trying to figure out how a five-part series about a cow attracted more attention than Dick Feagler’s entire repertoire of humdinger columns. — Lisa Rab
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.