Benjy the bull, who almost faced the slaughterhouse for being unable to impregnate cows due to his homosexual tendencies, will finally be free this weekend.

The story of Benjy, who prefers the company of other bulls, first caught the attention of the public and animal rights groups when his owner said he would face the slaughterhouse for being unable to “perform”.

At the time, the Mayo farmer who raised Benjy was fattening the bull up for slaughter after a vet determined that the reason he could not inseminate other cows was because of his sexual orientation. Pretty soon, the #SaveBenjy campaign was started and quickly built momentum – so much that co-creator of The Simpsons Sam Simon footed the bill to buy Benjy and send him to live out his days in a UK animal sanctuary.

Don’t you just love happy endings?

Well, the time has come and this weekend Benjy is to be shipped off to Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norwich – one of the UK’s most successful campaigning organisations for animal welfare. Benjy will be collected in Roosky, Claremorris, Co Mayo on Saturday.

During his first few days at Hillside Benjy will be quarantined to test for any medical conditions before joining a new herd.