cat ranch

bovine adventures

i’ve always wanted to stop and photograph the land in the pictures below.  it’s a beautiful farm on hwy 81 on the way to winder.  i’d love to know who owns it because i’d like to take more on the property.  not my best photography by far.  the cars screaming by had me out of sorts.  but i plan to go back.

and if i ever need a reminder as to why i don’t eat meat (ok, the occasional shrimp so sue me.) this is it.  i stopped and the cows were off in the the distance.  i snapped a few photos and rounded the corner a few hundred yards away to get some more shots.  i look back and they had all come up to the fence right where i had been standing.

so of course i had to go back.  i can’t get over how sweet, affectionate and curious these guys were.  one of them was grooming and nuzzling everyone.  i wanted to take him home!  but the cats would probably eat him.  according to a coworker they are black angus.  and i suppose if people must eat meat, the animals should be raised like this.  roaming free, eating grass not grain on beautiful pastures.

attn:  tangent ahead.

i’m reading “eating animals” by jonathan safran foer.  i have to put it down for days at a time.  for someone so tender-hearted towards animals, it is not an easy read.  but i believe it’s a necessary read.  the main focus of the book is the demise of the family farm and the rise of factory farming and its devastating effect on the way animals are treated.  it also poses several ethical questions about eating meat in general.  here is an excerpt from the book and this is nationwide.  if you think there is proper legislation in place…

“common farming exemptions (CFE) make legal any method of raising farmed animals so long as it is commonly practiced within the industry.  in other words, farmers - corporations is the right word - have the power to define cruelty.  if the industry adopts a practice - hacking off unwanted appendages with no painkillers, for example, but you can let your imagination run with this - it automatically becomes legal.”

normally, i am not preachy at all about eating or not eating meat. in fact, when someone finds out that i don’t eat meat, i often find myself being held to a standard that i never put out there.  like they want to “catch” me on something.  it is a personal preference and i will never tell someone how to eat.  but i do believe that we should be educated about where ALL of our food comes from and how it got there.  then we might have some real change.