Calves escape from Chapel’s live manger, hoof it to state park

A pair of calves who were playing small roles in a live nativity scene at a North Carolina church escaped to a nearby state park last week.

Photos show police waist-deep in the Cape Fear River at Carolina Beach State Park as they attempt to drag the swimming animals back to shore.

“As a police officer in a small island community, you may receive some unusual calls,” the local department noted in a Facebook post.

Officers were dispatched to help state park rangers round up the fugitives who “appeared in the living manger” at the Seaside Chapel in the Carolina Beach community, about 140 miles southeast of Raleigh, police reported.

They were eventually hunted down with the help of community volunteers and a “K9 with specialized herding skills,” the department noted.

One group with a particular concern with the incident was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“Please, to prevent future tragedies, will you stop using live animals in your events? Their sets and church members provide an absolutely beautiful attraction in their own right,” read a letter the animal rights organization sent to Seaside Chapel pastor Jerry Vess, the Port City Daily reported on Friday.

“Christian teachings are all about kindness — yet animals used in living cribs are not treated with compassion,” the letter added. “They’re often stressed out by transportation and the unfamiliar environment…they may be chained or confined in small pens.”

The vicar’s wife, Dana Vess, told the newspaper that the calves – along with donkeys and sheep – are provided by local farmers, who take them to the crèche at the church over two weekends. They go home to their farms between “performances,” she noted. According to Vess, they are kept in spacious enclosures, not chained, and fed their usual food.

“Farmers drop them off and pick them up, check the pens and make sure they’re safe – they’re their animals, so they want to make sure everything’s okay,” she told the Port City Daily.

The Vesses first noticed the calves were missing when police knocked on their door late Saturday and told them their actors were on the run. It was not clear how they escaped from their enclosure.

The calves were on the run for nearly 16 hours, according to the newspaper, ending up about nine blocks north at the state park.

They will not return to the nativity scene, which will only feature donkeys and sheep this weekend.

The organization was referring to the cows that escaped from their pens after participating in an interactive nativity program on Saturday night. https://t.co/yiOjVgHWDp

— Port City Daily (@PortCityDaily) December 9, 2022

Seaside Chapel’s “Journey to Bethlehem” — described as “an interactive walk-through nativity scene featuring live animals” — drew nearly 600 visitors on opening night Dec. 3, the church said.