-
Negrita, look who was digging under the wind mill!
-Is that a peludito? I´ve seen a peludo mother franticly looking for him yesterday near the road. Wait here I have to find her and tell her - said the cow
-He doesn´t stay still. And he has big claws. Why don´t you instead ask Mr. Hare? You know I can´t talk to him.
-You´re right 99, he runs faster than anybody. Hey! wait a minute... there he goes... are you sure you can´t talk to him? He seemed to understood every word you said and is not wasting a moment... as usual... look, he´s already passing the barn´s curve...
-I never tried.
-Anyway, he seems to like emergencies. He´s a
lways running for something. Can you handle the
peludito?
-Kind of... By the way, I saw you this morning with your friends in a sort of cow meeting. Is something happening?
-Well, we meet every once in a while to discuss stuff. This morning we gathered to discuss factory farming.
-You mean those places that treat farm animals as mere factory parts? They are disgusting. I distrust the kind of humans that think that the ends justify the means.
-We just see them as people who believe that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. We don´t blame them, they are stupid.
-You don´t? Feedlot animals are subjected to torture and cruelty of all kinds. Feedlots have come under criticism even by us for human health reasons. It´s not only the degrading treatments.
-Yeah, I know. We weren´t made for corn and grain diets. Here for example as grass-fed cattle we have far less saturated fat. I like to keep track of my omega 3 fatty acids. Good tissues make you happier. Actually, me and my friends were discussing happiness at the meeting.
-Wow! Tell me more.
-Today´s topic of conversation was the right to freedom of movement and residence.
-Most of us humans have those rights granted by some
Constitución. Some go further and believe in the
Pursuit of Happiness. What else?
-We believe we have rights to Five Freedoms:
freedom from hunger and thirst
freedom from discomfort
freedom from pain, injury or disease
freedom to express normal behavior
freedom from fear and distress
-Well, you don´t get any of those at the feedlots. At least not in the ones that I´ve seen. I can´t understand why you don´t even blame them for thinking that the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences?
-In those places they often justify harm to one individual by a greater gain to other individuals and humans naturally tend to be self-interested.
-You don´t?
-When faced with a choice, we first consider the rightness of the potential actions, and then we choose to do what we believe will generate the most happiness for every single individual.
-Not for the herd...? I never thought you were individualistic. I thought your first will was to preserve the herd.
-No. The herd is happy if all the individuals are happy. And I mean all, even the ones that don´t look like us, like the
peludito. A great loss to one individual like the
peludo mother should not be outweighed by small gains for many.
-So
Negrita, tell me, do all animals think like that everywhere?
-I don´t know. But here, we do. See, if
Mr. Hare didn´t think that way he wouldn´t have run to help.
-You mean it´s not just you, the cows? The hares too?
-Everybody in this farm thinks like that. Even you.
-... I thought I only had environmental concerns...
A bird landed near
us and we stopped our conversation. It was a big
Martineta bringing good news. The worried
mother had been informed and was coming for her baby as fast as her short legs could take her.
I left the little rebel on the ground near the bird and the cow. I knew they were going to take good care of him. I whispered
namasté, the three of them answered back and I left.
I had a lot of thinking to do.