{"id":3702,"date":"2012-07-10T11:41:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T18:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2018-04-18T21:31:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T04:31:23","slug":"the-innocents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/the-innocents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Innocents"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is enormously tragic, that the defenseless, the harmless and the gentle sentient beings from whom we\u00a0might have learned so much, who would have trusted us, and by whose acquaintance our lives could be\u00a0so much enriched, are rewarded with imprisonment, torture and slaughter.<\/p>\n

\"\"I am often reminded of, and haunted by, a post to the HappyCow blog on July 30, 2011 from Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati.
\nThe piece, entitled “Bruno: A New Perspective on Happy Cows<\/a>” can still be found in the blog archives.<\/p>\n

The story tells how Bruno, a bull who lived on a small organic dairy farm in the Italian countryside, was slaughtered, his body butchered and sold to pay for the care of the other animals on the farm.
\nI was struck with great sadness by the author’s account of how Bruno, of whom she had grown quite fond, trustingly followed the people who had always “fed him and scratched his chin” as they led him to the butcher’s truck.<\/p>\n

Bruno’s body was served as hamburgers the next night on the farm where he had lived. Upon seeing his spine which was “left as a treat for the dogs”. the author says “I could not connect this piece of flesh and bone to the animal I had loved”.<\/p>\n

In closing, the author says, recalling her stay on the farm and her acquaintance with the animals,”I see their shining eyes eagerly waiting for me to deliver their morning milk, hoping for a bit of green hay or a scratch on the chin. I know these were animals capable of being happy and that they had this chance stolen from them”.<\/p>\n

It is my constant dream and prayer that the day will dawn when everybody will regard the exploitation, torture, and slaughter of animals as utterly unimaginable.<\/p>\n