Junior Gabriel Quiros finds himself at major league games around Dallas frequently, but not just to watch, he shows up dressed as the Chick-Fil-A cow. He is one of Chick-fil-A’s “renegade cows” that appear at many sporting events in the DFW area.
While it is a unique job that most high school students don’t share, for Quiros this job is something he loves. “It’s pretty good, it’s really fun, everyone is nice, the people there are nice for the most part and I have no complaints,” Quiros said.
To some, interacting with kids is dreadful and should be avoided whether they’re being paid or not, but for junior Gabriel Quiros, this is exactly what he wants.
Visiting the American Airlines Center, home to the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, and Globe Life Field, home to the 2023 World Series Champion Texas Rangers, Quiros loves interacting with crowds while cheering on local major league teams.
But while most people attend these venues as fans, Quiros does so while dressed as a cow.
Not just any cow though. Quiros is a Chick-fil-A cow mascot.
“I’ll dress up as the cow and I’ll take photos with either kids or families and just dance around, make the company look good, and interact with the crowd,” Quiros said. “Occasionally we’ll give them a little plush cow as something to hold for the picture and take home.”
Being paid $17 an hour plus gas and parking expenses covered, Chick-fil-A’s “renegade cows” appear at many sporting events in the DFW area offering plushies and gift cards to families they come by.
I’ll dress up as the cow and I’ll take photos with either kids or families and just dance around, make the company look good, and interact with the crowd,
— junior Gabriel Quiros
“It’s pretty good, it’s really fun, everyone is nice, the people there are nice for the most part and I have no complaints,” Quiros said.
But being the mascot isn’t all Quiros does at his position, he also helps his colleagues when they’re in the suit.
“30 minutes before game time we’ll get dressed, we’ll get the cows ready and each cow has their own personal handler, which is someone who checks on the cow, I do that a little bit as well,” Quiros said, “they handle the cow, make sure the cow doesn’t run into anything cause it’s really hard to see in those suits, they’re the ones taking all the photos for the families.”
However poles and objects aren’t the only threat to the suits, children can also be a problem for the handlers.
“Occasionally you’ll have one of those kids that will smack the cows head or try to pull on the tail,” Quiros said. “If the costume gets damaged it costs the company a lot of money because those costumes are really expensive.”
When small kids aren’t a problem, things get more exciting during half time though, when Quiros gets to participate in stealing 3rd base.
“Another thing I do during the game, around half time, three or four of the cows will go down to the field, and we’ll do this thing like steal the base,” Quiros said. “What we’ll do is cheer the kid on as the kid runs, promote the company, as the camera man is pointing it towards us we’ll go crazy, and then you know the kid gets the base, runs back, we’ll go inside and go back to our 30 minute rotations.”
