Honoring Mothers of All Species
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to recognize. This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them can speak for themselves. As we continue to disregard the value of the lives of the billions of animals we eat, we also are destroying our air, land and water.

FROM

Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary
May 2015

With every non-vegan purchase, we demand that a new victim be brought into existence to replace the victim whose body and family we've already consumed as dairy, eggs, milk, skin or fiber. Every time we buy the products of animal suffering, we say: "I approve. Do it again." We can do better. All of us can, and should, live our lives without depriving others of theirs. All of us can, and should, live vegan.

mother cow and calf
Honoring Mothers of ALL Species

This Mother's Day, and every day, as we honor and celebrate Motherhood, please help us continue to advocate for the forgotten mothers of the world, the billions of captive females used in all forms of dairy, egg and flesh production - large and small - whose only experience of motherhood is one of loss and bitter absence.

Whether raised on large farms or small family farms, when farmed animals become mothers, they are all forced to face the same grim reality: their children belong to someone else. No matter how much they cherish their babies, or how desperately they struggle to protect them, they have no power whatsoever over the future their children will be forced to endure.

If their children are intended for meat, they will be taken from their mothers long before they are fully weaned, and "finished" (fattened for slaughter) in separate enclosures, or sent to feedlots with other young orphans, while the mother is forcibly re-impregnated with children she will fall in love with only to be forced to lose, again and again.

mother and baby pig
Mother and child - the purest love.

If the mother happens to be one of the billions of birds whose fertilized eggs are incubated in hatcheries that breed chickens either for meat or eggs, she will never get to see any of her babies. Every single one of the 90 billion eggs produced in the US every year (including backyard and hobby farms) originates from a hen who has been denied the freedom to raise her young.

motherless baby chick
For the billions of chicks hatched in industrial or backyard incubators to be used as "broilers" or "layers", the only experience of maternal love is one of bitter absence.

If the mother cow, goat or ewe is used for milk production, every one of her babies will be taken from her shortly after birth and denied access to her milk. The separation is as devastating to the mother as it is to the child. Some mother cows try to fight off the attackers, some try to shield their babies with their own bodies, some chase frantically after the transport, some cry pitifully, some withdraw in silent despair. Some go trustingly with their keepers only to return to an empty stall. They all beg for their babies in language that requires no translation: They bellow, they cry, they moan. Many continue to call for their babies for days and nights on end. Some stop eating and drinking. They search feverishly. Many refuse to give up and will return to the empty spot over and over again. Some wilt in silent grief.

grieving cow mom
To a female used for milk production, motherhood is synonymous with bereavement. Milk comes from a grieving mother.

Their daughters are raised in isolation to replace their own mothers in the line of production. Some of their sons are killed immediately and discarded as trash. Many others are butchered as "veal", 4-6 motherless months later. When these frail orphans are dragged onto the killing floor, they are still looking for their mothers, still desperately needing her nurturing presence, especially at that dark time when they are terrified and needing protection more than ever, in the midst of the terrible sights, and sounds, and smells of death all around them, and, in their despair, in their want for a shred of consolation and protection, many try to suckle the fingers of their killers.

baby calf
To a baby born on a dairy farm, the only experience of maternal love is one of yearning for it.

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Please remember that, every time we eat, wear, or use other animals, we actively support this massive attack on everything we claim to hold dear: motherhood, innocence, family, freedom, fairness, life itself.

With every non-vegan purchase, we demand that a new victim be brought into existence to replace the victim whose body and family we've already consumed as dairy, eggs, milk, skin or fiber.

Every time we buy the products of animal suffering, we say: "I approve. Do it again."

We can do better. All of us can, and should, live our lives without depriving others of theirs. All of us can, and should, live vegan.


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Animal Slaughter Kill Counter:

Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.

0 marine animals
0 chickens
0 ducks
0 pigs
0 rabbits
0 turkeys
0 geese
0 sheep
0 goats
0 cows / calves
0 rodents
0 pigeons/other birds
0 buffaloes
0 dogs
0 cats
0 horses
0 donkeys and mules
0 camels / camelids