Humans are good at living in our symbolic realities, even when they directly contradict the real world. This is extremely well symbolized by the fact that we idealize the concept of motherhood, even while we treat our own mothers like shit. I’m not talking about abusive mothers; I’m not talking about mothers who never mothered. I’m talking about most people with their regular mothers, and how they take them for granted (or worse), all while mouthing their devotion to motherhood.
And yet the way we treat our human mothers is far better than the way we treat cow mothers in the dairy industry. Whether it’s a so-called humane farm or not, behind every glass of milk is a baby snatched from its mother. We can’t allow cows to keep their children, because then we couldn’t take their milk. The girl babies are taken and prepared to repeat their mothers’ destinies, and the boy babies are either taken to veal farms or murdered outright. Their mothers cry for days and days; if you’ve never heard that sound, you have no idea of the depth of grief contained in those cries.
This Mother’s Day, Liberation BC is sponsoring their third annual Cow Ribbon Campaign. I’ll stop writing and let you read their words. I’ll just urge that you remember all the mothers of the world this Mother’s Day, and end the hypocrisy.
Why a cow ribbon?
What would it be like to lose all of your children, one after the other? What would it be like to never know your children?
In order to produce milk, cows must give birth – just like other mammals. In the dairy industry, calves are taken from their mothers immediately after birth, an emotionally painful experience.
Mother cows bellow for days for their missing calf before they finally give up.
Mothering instincts are incredibly strong, just like with mothers of other species, including humans. New born male calves sent the the slaughterhouse are seen suckling the hands of the slaughterhouse worker before their throats are slit.
Dairy cows are symbolic representatives of all of the animal mothers whose lives and reproductive systems are manipulated by humans.
The cow ribbon is a symbol of your concern for these suffering and abused mothers. Please take a stand and speak out for them. Every mother deserves to know and love her children, don’t you think?
I suspect that if children realized what their beloved picture-book farm animals really endure, not one of them would ever again touch a glass of milk.
And I’m glad you stress the baby factor again — I don’t know what I think about human children and what they would or would not do, but I do know that cow children hover behind every piece of cheese or glass of milk — whenever someone proudly asserts they don’t eat veal but could never give up their cheese, I remind them that in every bite of cheese IS a veal calf. If you eat dairy, you are eating veal. Every single bite, every sip of milk, every pat of butter contains some part of a baby boy who is now languishing in a veal crate, waiting for the knife to slit his throat — quite often while he’s trying to suckle the hand that holds the blade. Sick sick sick sick sick.