“Pet” calf excavated in Florida’s oldest city
August 13th, 2008 by admin
There was a curious article in today’s St. Augustine Record about a skeleton discovered by the city’s archeologist. Carl Halbirt was digging in the backyard (now a parking lot) of Pablo Sabate, who lived in the city in the mid-1800s, when he uncovered the remains of a young cow.
Halbirt believes that the Sabate family kept the calf as a pet because the calf appeared to be deliberately laid on his or her side and buried, along with a small cross made out of wire- not something you would do if you were keeping an animal for food.
It’s nice to imagine a family in Florida 175 years ago feeling affection for an animal that was more commonly viewed as “meat,” then and now.
The animal’s bones were too brittle to be excavated so they will remain where they were found.