A Day at the Stockyard

All Farm Sanctuary interns are given the opportunity to visit a stockyard in a monthly field trip. I had read a lot about how animals in the agricultural business are treated but I hadn’t really seen it firsthand so the minute I heard about the trip I knew I would go. I also know myself enough to know that I could handle what I would see. The experience was pretty much what I expected; though I will say seeing animals treated as commodities in person was different than reading about it or watching it. The place we went to was small; it was a sort of a mom and pop’s stockyard. I can’t imagine how bad industrial ones are because this one was not pretty. There were animals in pens on display. So many babies—baby goats, lambs, and calves. There were adult animals too. When I put my hand out to the adult cows, they cringed and moved away. Testimony to what they have learned of people. In the next room were mainly calves—unwanted byproducts of the dairy industry. They were very tiny; some still had their umbilical cords hanging from their bellies. If you put out your hand they would suckle from it; they had probably never had a chance to do this with their own mothers. At this point I checked out the auction. A man was rapidly announcing weights and prices for the calves. Calves were being pushed on the sort of stage to be displayed. It was hard to hear the prices but I know one calf was sold for forty dollars. There was a rapid succession of calves: weight, price, sold. Many of these calves would most likely go on to be slaughtered for low-grade veal. Past the auction and the calves were some pigs. Their eyes were sunken in and their ears down—they looked sad, like they had given up and accepted their fate. I thought how these pigs would soon be slabs of meat—people’s dinner.

            What I have mainly taken from this experience is how I view dairy. Whereas I once looked at dairy products as appetizing I will now see the faces of all those calves and turn away. I knew meat was bad and I knew dairy was too, but the connection was less palpable. Now I feel it strongly.