Brightside Farm Sanctuary - Meet our Cows!

Meet our Cows!

Welcome to the cow page.

Meet some of the cows in Brightside´s rescued cow herd.

Robyn

Robyn is one of our latest additions to the rescued cow herd. She and her two cow friends were to be sent to the slaughterhouse by their owner but Robyn had other ideas.

She smashed through the cattle yard fence and ran away up the road. A Brightside volunteer heard about Robyn and asked if we would help by giving her a home at Brightside so she would not be killed.

The next week Robyn was again in the yards and walked calmly into the Brightside horsefloat. She travelled like a childs pony even though she is a nervous and unhandled cow....I believe she knew she was safe. Here she is pictured in the float !

Annabel and Esther

(Esther right Annabel below right)

Annabel and Esther are 2 of Brightside´s dairy calf residents. In the dairy industry they are known as the waste product or by product of dairy.

I had organised to buy Esther from a dairy in order to save the life of a calf also hoping that if I could introduce people to her then I could show them the hidden face of dairy.

On Wednesday the 17^th October we arrived at the farm Esther was in a pen with other calves including a calf that was noticeably smaller as she had been prematurely born. This calf was Annabel. My daughter asked what Annabel´s fate would be as the calf stood sucking on her fingers. We were told Annabel would be sold for veal and was off on the truck to the abattoir for slaughter on Sunday.

We were quickly told not to worry the calf would be all right. It just happens that the day before I had sat and watched footage showing how these little calves are treated during transport and before and during slaughter at the abattoir, one thing I knew was she would not be all right. We could not leave without her, negotiated a price and gently lifted her into the back of the ute with Esther.

Petty and Lola

(Lola left Petty right)
Petty is an ex-dairy cow who would have been slaughtered by now because of her age if she had not had the good fortune to join us at Brightside.

In the dairy industry the cows give birth every year to a calf, the calf is taken away when it is one or two days old and the cow will never see her calf again. This is so that humans can have her milk. This is very distressing for a cow. The calf is then either artificially reared or is usually sent to the slaughterhouse when he or she is just 4 or 5 days old.

Petty has huge brown eyes and is always round as a football. She is a devoted mother to Lola who is four years old, and still stands licking Lola´s head for hours. Lola´s favourite pastime is having a drink of warm milk and licking her mothers face.

Panda, Theo and Robert

left Panda,Lola.Theo and Robert.

Australians consume 8.8 million cattle each year. 294 million cattle are produced for meat in the world each year.

These boys are very lucky. They were destined for a trip to the butcher. After we did some negotiating they found themselves on a truck to the sanctuary. Robert the little one is the boss. Theo is the inquisitive one and Panda is the most reserved.

Fergus
Fergus is a Friesian dairy calf and was destined for the veal market. Like all dairy calves he was taken from his mother when he was a few hours old. He was born a month premature and the dairy farmer battled to keep him alive only to announce that he would then be on the next truck to the abattoir as there is no “use” for male dairy calves other than veal (calf meat) or pet meat. Fergus loves playing chases and his favourite friend is Pablo the lamb, they were raised together.

Basil
Basil is a Jersey X Friesian steer from a dairy. He was also destined for the butcher but instead came to us when he was a week old. He was saved by my daughter when she was 10 years old. With her friends, she saved up pocket money to buy him and the bags of powdered milk. Basil is now a huge steer who likes to play chicken and loves a neck massage!

Harry

Harry was an orphan calf on the property of a man renowned for animal abuse. He had been left to fend for himself with another orphan calf Fiona. After negotiating with the owner he eventually agreed to surrender the 2 calves to Brightside. They have flourished in our care.

left; Harry shortly after rescue and below left Harry today. below right Fiona today.

I sometimes think, would I drink the milk from the breast of a woman I don´t know? No. So I think, why would I drink it from a cow.
-Devon Aoki

1869 A veteran USDA meat inspector from Texas describes what he has seen: "Cattle dragged and choked...Knocking ‘em four, five, ten times. Every now and then when they´re stunned they come back to life, and they´re up there agonizing. They´re supposed to be re stunned but sometimes they aren´t and they´ll go through the skinning process alive. I´ve worked in four large [slaughterhouses] and a bunch of small ones. They´re all the same. If people were to see this, they´d probably feel really bad about it. But in a packing house everybody gets so used to it that it doesn´t mean anything."
--"Slaughterhouse", 1997