A few centuries ago
Particularly under the Eastern skies
She grazed peacefully under the sun.
Frolicked in the village pond
Walked three to four miles every day
Had her fill of grasses
Provided milk and nourishment
For the ones that took care of her!

Saved from slaughter
Written into the scriptures
Forbidden!
Died natural death.
After death she benefited the human race with leather and buttons
Carrion usually feasted on the remains!

Modern day Bessy's plight
They don't teach compassion and humanity in MBA courses!

Bessy has no feelings
No needs
Is inanimate
Goal maximize $$$$'s
Compassion be damned !

Confined to a stall
In a barn away from sunlight
Excreta -polluta stench unbearable
Who cares!

Concrete floors and goes lame
So what- kill it!

Tail flops around
in the manure and urine into milking apparatus.
Chop it off!
Wait! too much effort
No anesthesia just bind it
Shuts off blood supply
Painfully falls off!
Hey day for flies!!

No more prairie grass for Bessie
Mix soya bran with Chicken manure!!
Yes Chicken manure!!
She's hungry will eat it
Put lots and lots of Antibiotics

Environment is unclean you know!
We'll lose money if she gets sick!
& Yes give it the bovine growth hormone!

Jacks up milk supply unnaturally
100 pounds per day instead of 25 that God had planned!
For the calf
But humans,
we can steal
So what!

The cows' udders are not meant to process so much milk!
Mastitis and other diseases set in
Pus forms, very painful for the cow! Meets regulation and ship it!

Who cares the milk spigots are open
Money is rolling in!! That's all that matters!
We have clout says Biznusfarmer! Worry not about clean air Act

Putting up 4000 herd dairy farm!
suckers in Peoria know not
19 acres of open cesspool- open air excreta- renamed
"Lagoon"
Flies and vermin enter local water table all kinds of pathogens !
So what, who cares

Green backs come!! Come!! But yes!!
Ah! There's more money yet to be made!!

Bessy has a womb!
Lined with more greenbacks
Keep her constantly pregnant!

Calf given 1 hour to three days to suckle!!
Male calf separated
veal crate, fed gruel,
no iron, kept in the dark suffering from constant diarrhea grows sickly
Eventually sees the sun en-route to the slaughterhouse
Served as veal- connoisseurs enjoy the white delicacy
With its aura of pain!

Female into the main stream, dairy cow,
produce 4 calves and the fifth year milk production declines- goes to
Slaughter
Bessy's fate Finite probability will get dismembered live or bled alive-
scripted by elders
Served as hamburger at the lunch counter!

Bessy
WHAT did you do?
To deserve this??

If you are interested in receiving a free copy of the CD "Meet Your Meat", narrated by Alec Baldwin, contact Chalissa. She will send the CD to anyone having a CD burner, or access to one, and pledging to make at least four copies to give to their meat-eating friends. The hope is that each one of these friends in turn will see value in changing themselves and then make additional copies to share with their friends and thus we have a chain geometric progression.

"We CAN truly make an impact; reduce animal cruelty, improve mother earth, improve our own health AND thus make the world a lot more compassionate." See all poetry See all poetry See all poetry