You might think Gucci, the steer, is spoiled rotten. He eats ice cream and donuts, he goes to festivals and parties, he’s pampered and petted and is loved by literally millions of people. But Gucci has lived his entire life just one step away from getting turned into hamburger.
Gucci has been lucky. He and his sister were born prematurely. He pulled through with the help of his handler, Mason Corkery of Jesup who did something no cattleman is ever supposed to do. He became emotionally attached to a calf. “I’ve never gotten close with a cow before,” he told the Des Moines Register. “But when his sister died, I thought he needed a friend. He was so ugly that I thought he was cute—had eyes going in different directions and a mean underbite.”
When Gucci had grown to about 400 pounds, he was dehorned and scheduled for the slaughterhouse. But on a whim, Corkery packed him into the back seat of his pickup truck and drove him to the Dairy Queen for some ice cream. And, luckily for Gucci, he made a video of the event and posted it on TikTok. It showed Gucci sitting up in the seat, licking Corkery’s ear as they waited for their order in the drive-through. They shared a sloppy “pup cup” of ice cream, like two friends goofing around. Corkery laughed, “Look at you go! Gucci, get it, man. Yeah, you party animal!”
The next day, Corkery checked his TikTok page and discovered Gucci’s video had been viewed more than 6.6 million times! Gucci was an overnight superstar. Gucci’s owner Bradly Cook of Hook Stock Farms, where Corkery worked, decided to let him keep the steer at the his family dairy farm which had been forced to close a few years before.
Then Corkery’s TikTok site was suddenly shut down for “multiple community guideline violations”. It seems they objected to a cow eating donuts. Well, a lot of donuts. But, come on, can’t a guy have a little fun? The ban was a bunch of bull. Corkery appealed the verdict and soon TikTok relented, allowing the celebrity steer to continue entertaining his millions of fans.
Currently, his TikTok page has 8.1 million likes with numerous comical videos of Gucci eating mounds of funnel cakes and ice cream, playing with young children and following Corkery around like a dog. Now, Gucci serves as a goodwill ambassador, entertaining children at school events and delighting residents at nursing homes.
Today, Gucci, though a mature 1,700 pounds (he eats a lot of grass), is still just as playful and friendly as he was when he first won his freedom from the slaughterhouse. Watching Gucci frolic and play, cozying up to his visitors, you can’t help but see that he loves people. And he loves his happy life, as other cattle would probably do if they had his opportunities. Gucci is a lucky guy and even more lucky that he doesn’t know what people once had planned for him.
Living in Iowa: Gucci, Iowa’s celebrity, donut-eating steer
August 24, 2023