The Veal Calf
By Meaghan Carmichael
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

Good Morning World
For All Is Well
Said the calf before he fell.

It was a beautiful Saturday
The little Calf
Thought He’d Play

In The Fields
He had come 
To know so well

He strayed too far and 
In a bush
He fell

With prickles all over
And blood in his hair
His owners simply did not care.

They brought him back
To a Tiny Box
One like many round the block

And chained him up
By his small neck
The little guy was stuck

A few weeks later 
He came out
He was herded into a trailer

With others of his kind
Some darker
Some Paler

After a few days
His Trailer stopped 
On the ground the calves were plopped

The smell of blood 
Hung in the air
As well as the lingering scent of despair.

He and some calves were pushed into a box
Slippery with blood
He couldn’t stand

When he finally came up
They secured
His head

That he couldn’t move.
After a shot or two
Calf was finally dead.

OR SO IT WOULD SEEM.

The brave little calf 
Who thought He could
Was out of the knock box.

And a chain was
Fastened around his hoof
He was strung up to the ceiling.

The workers proceeded
They cut his throat
And his blood came pouring out

His fur was cut off
Then came his legs
But his heart was still beating.

The men they laughed
When they saw
His blue eyes flutter open

With his legs cut off
And no skin to speak of
It seemed he couldn’t survive.

The Calf proved them wrong
At least for a while
Before he bled to death

The Calf 
was chopped
up into bits

And fur
rode the
conveyor belt.

The veal was 
Put into small crates
and shipped

To stores all around

The little calf that could
Was bought and put into a
Shopping cart

The customers brought
home the steak
and warmed it crispy brown

And they helped it on their plates
And in their forks
And knives went down.

Unfortunately this is the sad life of a veal calf, When a male dairy calf is born, it is ripped from its mother and grain-fed for a grand total of 14 weeks. In his tiny crate, he can smell see and moo to his fellow prisoners. This isn’t the life a calf should have.