Living in a very rural area close to several large farms and many public footpaths through them I frequently witness some worrying things going on when out walking. At one time I supported Compassion in World Farming (https://www.ciwf.org.uk, and later on just became more into general animal issues by supporting the RSPCA. Now I mostly have to be concerned more with prioritising speciesist issues personal to me, ie learning disabilities. One thing that is often said of poor treatment of humans is that they are being treated like an animal, and that is why it is so important to try to help the animals too, as by doing so we improve the attitudes and treatment of humans by making any kind of cruelty completely unacceptable in any circumstances. It also makes us realise what cruelty is. Recently there has been a dreadful court case in New Zealand about a farmer’s cruelty to his cows. This poem by Heidi Stephenson of the All Creatures Christian vegetarian group helps us to digest and remember the issues, and not to let it just slip away into the ether with hundreds of other similar stories.
THE COW BEATER by Heidi Stephenson
Three female cows,
three tired, female cows,
three bereaved, female cows
Pregnancy – birthing . . .loss
Pregnancy – birthing . . .loss
Pregnancy – birthing . . .loss
dare to RESIST
their slavemaster,
the constant kidnapper,
the killer
of their calves;
the profiteering
milk snatcher,
the “contract milker”,
their cruel oppressor.
And so he BEATS them,
BEATS them
with a steel pipe
with hard steel
. . .until they reel.
He beats these benign
bovine girls
repeatedly,
in order to “educate”
“those three grumpy bitches”
(continued here https://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/ar-cow-beater.html)
Sapphire Sea 