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The Story 0f Lester, the I-75 Cow

  • notdevoted
  • May 26, 2023
  • 8 min read

Updated: May 27, 2023


Many of you have likely seen the now viral footage of the cow being roped by a cowboy on I-75 in Holly, MI. People are putting the Yellowstone theme music to the videos, getting a chuckle, or even arguing about this cow's potential “slaughter fate”, hoping he is “taken to a rescue” or applauding the news that he has “been returned to his family”. Many of you are probably wondering how this situation came to be. Well, Lester’s fate is not the Cinderella story some will make it out to be, and we’re here to tell you why.


Let’s begin with a brief history of where Lester came from.

Lester belonged to the rescue/sanctuary The Devoted Barn (TDB). TDB is a program of the Devoted Friends Animal Society (DFAS) a 501c3 non profit organization. TDB operates unchecked under the management of Melissa Borden. Over the last decade, TDB has grown to house over 140+ animals including dogs, horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, cats, donkeys, alpacas, llamas, etc. According to the 990 tax filings, TDB receives roughly $550k average in revenue per year, while Borden remains unemployed and living for free in the homes on the donation funded properties. Melissa has up to 11 personal horses, 9 personal dogs, and a few personal goats. Remember that she is unemployed & claims no compensation from the rescue organization, although she could legally claim a salary and pay income taxes on it. This salary would need to be reported on their 990 forms for public disclosure. For more detail into this operation, please read this blog that elaborates on this rather interesting “deal”.


In April 2018, 3 cows were caught in Monroe County Michigan when they needed to be removed off a property that was sold. TDB ended up catching these cows & brought them to their rescue property in Newport, MI.

These cows included Thelma, Louise and Louise’s new calf Norman. As a result of lack of knowledge and the inability to catch him, Norman was NOT castrated early enough and bred both Thelma & Louise, producing 2 babies, LESTER & Poppy. https://www.facebook.com/TheDevotedBarn/videos/505706459966567


Below is a family tree to get an idea of the cows born, not rescued, at TDB. Here is also a video explaining this some more.

By spring 2019, TDB had failed to meet the requirements for the special land use permit by their township in Newport, resulting in a hasty move from their property there. More details about Frenchtown issues can be found here. When she realized that their days in Frenchtown were numbered, Borden found a $1.18 million farm available in Holly, MI & entered into a land contract with the owners, Huntington Ridge Farm (HRF) in May 2019. All of the animals were moved to this property by August 2019, including Lester who was a couple months old.


From this moment on, TDB began to spiral out of control even further. Much like his father, Lester remained uncastrated & the unchecked breeding of cows began again. Lester fathered at least five calves, with Thelma, Louise & Poppy. Lester was not castrated until late 2021, early 2022, but not in time to stop more inbred calves. On Christmas 2021, a “miracle calf” magically showed up in the cow pasture, was removed from the field & kept in a stall.


Melissa claimed this calf to be an orphan that they had rescued. Here is the Oakland County Animal Control report that was made after a citizen called concerned about seeing afterbirth hanging from one Thelma on a visit to the barn.




In August of 2021, TDB failed to make it’s required land contract payments to HRF. In the court documents, they use the excuses of a lack of donations due to the impending pandemic, as well as a costly manure mismanagement issue that was reported & required to be fixed. The manure issue consisted of dumping manure on protected wetlands on the property, & creating literal manure mountains. Where are those mountains you may ask? Well of course, in the cow pasture! Read more details on this about this HERE and HERE . Here is a video from a Facebook comment that someone took shortly after TDB vacated the property showing the state of the field the cows were kept in. The person taking this was standing on top of the giant manure pile.


These cows were in living in a large, manure saturate pasture. They were thrown in the most “hidden”, forgotten pasture, and forgotten they were. They went days without water or hay, and frequently broke out of their pasture. They ventured onto the neighboring properties where they were a danger to many people, children included.


On record with the Michigan State Police, the cows escaped on 6/18/2020, 6/21/2022 & 7/10/2020. Off record, this happened on many occasions, at least a dozen other times, as reports from volunteers and others on the property have suggested. It is important to remember, cows are escape artists, so having sturdy, safe fencing is a must. Even director Borden acknowledges this, as well as her distaste for cows because of this.


As stated earlier, TDB & Borden failed to pay their land contract payments starting in August 2021. This resulted in HRF filing for forfeiture of the land contract. In 2022, the first forfeiture case was settled, after giving Melissa a few “Hail Mary” stories for online supporters in order to receive donations to pay the court ordered amount needed for redemption of the property. In Spring 2022, Borden again failed to make a land contract payment, & was still breaching other land contract terms (failure to provide proof of insurance and committing waste to the property). Huntington Ridge again filed for forfeiture. On July 19, 2022, HRF was granted possession of the property.

On November 22, 2022, HRF filed for eviction of TDB from the Holly property. This was granted by the court & TDB had 10 days to raise $100,000 for a stay bond in order to remain on the property through their appeals process.


TDB did raise this bond but neither the Oakland County Circuit Court or the Michigan Court of Appeals would hear the case.


On March 1, 2023 the district court judge entered a final judgement in favor of HRF awarding them the money owed per the forfeiture.

As of this date it was known by TDB needed to move out, or they would be forced out. Borden failed to move herself, her family, her boyfriend’s family (his mother & daughter of whom both resided on the property), her personal horses, her trainer’s horses & all her rescue animals.


On March 7th and again on March 14th the district court clarified details, via court orders, regarding HRF’s right to evict The Devoted Barn. The March 14th order even stipulated that "if arrangements are not made by Defendant to take possession of the animals and livestock within five days of the date the eviction is executed by the Court Officer, then the animals livestock shall be deemed abandoned..." So legally, these animals were ABANDONED.



On March 14th, Borden moved at least 6 of her personal horses off the property to another boarding facility. On March 15th, court officers showed up to the Holly property & swiftly began the eviction process. Borden was given 24 hours to move out of the house & 5 days to move out of the barns & move the animals. Huntington Ridge Farm DID allow for an additional 24 hours for removal of the cows. On that extra day, Monday March, 20th, TDB did not even make a single attempt to catch the five remaining cows from the field. This eviction, this fixed timeline to scramble to find a place for these sanctuary animals, is no one's fault but Melissa Borden’s. She knew it was coming, she knew it back in November. She moved her personal horses first. She was not blindsided. She absolutely could’ve prepared, as any responsible manager would have, though a responsible manager wouldn’t be in that position in the first place. She could’ve used the 100k to secure a new property & ensure the safety & well-being of the animals that depend on her. Instead, she gambled, with donated money & she lost, badly.


Borden & volunteers scrambled to move their belongings, animals & find a new property. She begged the court officers and property owners for an extra day to catch the remaining cows to move, & it was granted. However, on March 20th, the final day she was allowed on the property, she failed to even attempt to catch the 5 cows, Lester, Thelma, Newman, Norman & a calf named Tinkerbelle. Her ownership rights to these five cows ended on this day. Oakland County Animal Control (OCAC) and Michigan Humane Society (MHS) became involved, rightly so, because these animals were abandoned. This is the legal, due process that was appropriately handled by Huntington Ridge Farm after these animals were abandoned.


Since this day, the whereabouts, general care, and concern for these cows has not been part of Borden’s day-to-day life. Huntington Ridge arranged for the professional cowboy, Ricky Littlejohn, after MHS and Abraham Farms were unable to corral all the cows and four of the five left the pasture. Huntington Ridge watched trail cams and communicated to all parties about their whereabouts. By April 8th, all 5 cows had been caught & taken to Abraham Ranch. During the process of unloading into his new home, Lester escaped & had been on the run since April 8th. All 5 of these cows were also removed from TDB's own website. If they were still claiming ownership and planned all along to get them back, why would they have suddenly disappeared from their animal pages? There are only five cows remaining on their site. The below screenshot was taken today 5/26/2023.


Here is a timeline of known events since the escape:

  • On May 7, 2023 Melissa says in a video that she’s been in contact with Abraham Farm/MHS regarding the cows “every day” since they got the cows.


  • On May 10, 2023 Melissa said in a live video that she could not afford to feed these animals, and would possibly need to euthanize.



To date, Melissa/TDB has no permanent residence; Melissa has reported she has the animals housed at four different locations temporarily. Why should an agency return these five cows to her when she’s effectively homeless? Melissa cannot play both sides – she cannot claim to be shocked that he escaped when her cows have managed to escape that property numerous times over the last several years. Melissa also slammed Gretchen Sommer for not catching him herself, as she had grain & “let him go” while at the same time, she had to hire a professional wrangler to catch him. Let’s not forget that Lester is INBRED and let to the existence of at least five more inbred babies. Inbred due to negligence on the management of the rescue. You should also be asking what became of these calves, as there is only one still accounted for. You should also notice that Poppy, Thelma’s 2019 calf born around the same time as Lester, is also notably missing. What happened to Poppy?


This ALL could have been avoided if Melissa properly managed TDB, their animals & the donations that come in that are meant to pay for them. There, yet again, is no one to blame but herself.


CALL TO ACTION

We need you to contact Oakland County Animal Control and tell them that Lester, Norman, Newman, Thelma and Tinkerbelle should NOT be returned to The Devoted Barn/Devoted Friends Animal Society. Melissa has no business getting them back. She abandoned them in the first place, has no funds to care for them, and does not have an adequate facility in which to house them. Voice concern that Lester is currently housed in a stall and there does not appear to be any fencing that would contain him shown in any videos of the animals at the property being leased by TDB. What are the plans to get him out of a stall?


OCAC Contacts

Robert Gatt AC Division Manager - gattr@oakgov.com

Patrick Fanning- Assistant Director OCAC-




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