How was Edna saved from a cruel fate in the meat market?
The sweet calf, Edna, was found two weeks ago in the Ben Shemen forest by hikers. They contacted us, reported that there was a young calf wandering around the forest, and we sent a special vehicle that picked her up and brought her to us. How did Edna get to the forest? It’s a mystery. However, we are happy about the alertness of the hikers, since in the forest Edna was exposed to many dangers.
The veterinarian of the Society who examined her determined that Edna was healthy and that she was less than a week old. Special milk was brought in to feed her, and within a few days she was moved to an organic farm, where a peaceful life awaited her with food free of poisons.
Edna is from a variety of cattle for meat and it is reasonable to assume that she was intended to one day become raw material for a steak…. We at the Society understand the desire of man to eat meat; however, this matter does not have to contradict proper maintenance of suitable conditions with humane treatment of animals in the meat industry. In this industry animals go through a web of abuse and cruelty, and as those who are partners in the struggles against these unnecessary actions with animals, we call out to destroy this phenomenon and we demand the cessation of the consumption of veal derived from nursing calves.
These calves are kept in narrow stalls, in which all possibility of movement is denied them, and this is done in order to prevent the development of muscle tissue and to get tender mea. Under these conditions the calves are kept for months and are continually force fed until their size is no longer suitable for the stall and they are not even able to lick themselves with their tongues. They are fed nutrient-poor food, the purpose of which is to keep the color of the meat to the requested culinary standards, but this food damages them severely and causes illnesses in their digestive systems.
About a day before the slaughter the calves are brought to the slaughter house. There they are caged in terrible crowding without food and water and are left to wallow in their excrement. When their hour arrives they are driven on by electric cattle prods and bludgeon hits to their heads while they are scared and helpless. Anyone who sees these sights could be confused into thinking that these are adult cows, but actually these are genetically distorted calves that were raised this way in order to fatten them while developing the breast and limbs. The fate of the calves that are imported is also similar, in that imported calf meat does not usually arrive in air-tight containers, but rather in a live and breathing state. These calves arrive in pens on the decks of ships in terribly crowded conditions and almost without food and water, and in a violent way they are removed from the ships and brought to the slaughter houses.