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WATCH: Saved from Slaughterhouse, Ireland's Gay Bull Finds Sanctuary

WATCH: Saved from Slaughterhouse, Ireland's Gay Bull Finds Sanctuary

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A cocreator of The Simpsons paid thousands to buy and transport to a U.K. sanctuary an Irish bull that was headed to the slaughterhouse because the animal would not mate with female cows.

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Benjy, the boy bovine who's more interested in other bulls than the cows an Irish farmer bought him to breed with, arrived at an animal sanctuary this weekend, after activists rallied to save the bull from the slaughterhouse where his owner had planned to send him, U.K. LGBT outlet Pink News reports.

While more than 300 animal-lovers donated to a campaign launched by Dublin-based Animal Rights Action Network to save Benjy, the bull's final transfer was made possible by a donation from Sam Simon, cocreator of Fox's animated series, The Simpsons. Simon, a generous philanthropist and avid animal rights proponent even before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago, paid an estimated $7,500 to purchase Benjy and have him transported from an Irish farm to Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norwich, England.

"It thrills me to help [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] and ARAN make Benjy's fate a sanctuary rather than a sandwich," Simon said in a statement through PETA.

The fact that Benjy was destined for slaughter because he was disinterested in mating with females may have made him useless to his owner, but it made the opportunity to save him doubly attractive to Simon.

"PETA told me about Benjy, and I felt compelled to help," Simon told PETA. "All animals have a dire destiny in the meat trade, but to kill this bull because he's gay would've been a double tragedy."

Because he'll be castrated at his new home, Benjy's libido likely won't be as much of a factor in determining his fate at the animal sanctuary as it was on the farm he's leaving behind.

"I know they say Benjy's gay, but we won't be taking any chances," Hillside farmer John Watson told the Irish Sunday Independent. "Any animals that come here are neutered because we want to rescue animals in need, not breed them and fill up the sanctuary."

But that's a fate Sam Simon and the animal rights workers are sure Benjy would prefer over becoming a product of the meatpacking industry.

"I did hear that he will be neutered once arriving at the sanctuary," Simon said. "Sanctuaries exist to help animals in need -- not to breed more animals, so it only makes sense that they don't want to take any risks."

Watch the Independent's report on Benjy's transfer below.

Week of Barnyard Stories in LGBT News

Coincidentally, the antigay, anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party has been evicted from its offices outside of London because of an offensive smell and a frustrated landlord, both of which were created by a symbolic protest in the form of horse droppings left at the front of UKIP offices in Croydon, reportedly by "HIV activists," according to Pink News.

"ACT UP can't say we're overcome with sympathy, having heard UKIP are being kicked out from their London office," an ACT UP spokesman told Pink News. "They've expended a great deal of energy sowing division between neighbours and hostility against minorities. This just reinforces our original message: what goes around comes around.

"We're confident the vast majority of Londoners would be happy to send the message that UKIP are not welcome here. ACT UP will continue to expose UKIP for the bigots they are."

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., a Baptist pastor in Jackson, Miss. thought it would be clever to protest marriage equality in Mississippi by putting a wedding gown on a horse and brandishing a sign that read, "The next unnatural law: Do you take this horse to be your unnatural wedded spouse to have and to hold? This might be even be possible if the band [sic] on same sex marriage is lifted. 'Where do we draw the line'?" A second, smaller poster proclaimed "Marriage is one man and one woman anything else is a perversion."

"I just want to send a message, saying, you know, how far are we going to go with this thing?" the Rev. Edward James of Bertha Chapel Missionary Baptist Church told local news network WJTV.

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