Jo and Liberty: two cows, two destinies

Jo fell from the van. Just a calf, he broke his pelvis falling on the floor. He was then pulled across a "rough surface," he had to get up. But how can you when your tendons are broken, and your muscles torn? No-one bent down to help him, support him, speak to him, or to shorten his suffering. So Jo stayed on the bare concrete, in the pouring rain for almost two days. The abattoir's neighbour, the Society for the Protection of Animals, was helpless. The management ignored the societies request to act. The manager of the establishment was taken to court. We are waiting for the judgement at the end of June.

Liberty was luckier. In June 2005, this beautiful blonde cow from the Aquitaine region, distraught at the odour of blood, jumped over the barriers to escape from the Auch abattoir, then ran as fast as she could, as far away as possible from this house of horror… Hungry, she found herself in a much appreciated lush green garden. She hoped for a bit of peace but it is not easy for a cow to hide! Her executioners managed to find her and took her back to the abattoir but upon examination the vet said she was too stressed - adrenaline ruins the taste of meat. So her slaughter was delayed to the next day. For One Voice, it was the beginning of a fierce battle. Here followed twenty-four hours of tough negotiations, intense pressure, and an interview with Arthur (a well-known French TV and radio presenter) and Muriel Arnal! Thanks to media and public support in a time when social networks did not exist, Liberty was saved. For ten years, she lived happily in one of the member's sanctuaries. She died peacefully from old age at the end of a happy life.

The real taste of meat is the taste of fear. Whether the cow is brought up in a field, treated well, nurtured, fed on the best grains, or has lived the nightmare of industrial farming: the issue remains the same. From birth, the calf is condemned to death on a precise date, determined by its race or function, milk producer, steak or pale child flesh. No other destiny is possible other than to finish on death row, at the end of a more or less short life. When a cow escapes, as Liberty did, the law refuses her the right to live out her life in a welcoming sanctuary. She must die, because she has been born for that, she has been fed for that and she cannot represent a loss on an investment.

Today, French consumers are more and more affected by the question of animal well-being. Certain people refuse to go to a dolphinarium, because of the suffering of the dolphins there. Others refuse to consume palm oil, because orangutans die for it to be produced. Without doubt it is time for us to confront another truth which is just as cruel and is much closer to home: meat is the remains of an assassinated animal person. These muscles are taken from a cow with big soft black eyes, who would also have loved to graze with his friends in a big field, or play childhood games, where death will only befall naturally. "Everyone is scared of death", said the Buddha, "everyone wants happiness". This is also true for cows!