I’m going to make a WAG and speculate that the bull was
neither an employee nor a mascot of the slaughter house.
A couple of experienced cattle people, a rope, and maybe
a flake of alfalfa would have saved the animal’s life...
....temporarily.
I will take the author’s word that the animal was a bull.
From my TV view it could also have been a heifer or a
steer.
Probably a steer now that I think about it. Bulls aren’t created for slaughter.
Thinking the same thing. Bulls don’t that often go to slaughter. Steers and even cows sometimes have horns.