The hare and the farm factories

-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 always 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.