-
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
-
They weren't supposed to die...
-
...this way.
-
It all started with survivors...
-
…on my first visit to Iowa Farm Sanctuary,
our state's first and only vegan sanctuary
-
for farmed animals who have either been liberated
or escaped their fate in our food industry.
-
Not long after I arrived, IFS co-founder Shawn
received a call from her husband.
-
A semi truck carrying cows to slaughter had
flipped on a highway about 45 minutes away.
-
The Sanctuary's only trailer had a blown tire,
so they posted a desperate call for help on
-
Facebook as we took off for the crash site
in hopes of saving any survivors.
-
By the time we arrived, they'd been cleaning
up for over five hours already.
-
But three bodies still remained.
-
We could see the legs of one cow projecting
upwards from the top of the dumpster, filled
-
to the brim with carcasses.
-
Walking the path of the truck through the
woods, seeing cast off parts wrapped around
-
trees from the sheer impact of the descent,
the remaining ejected bodies of cows lying
-
bloodied in the brush, and the violently contorted
remains of the trailer
-
it was hard to believe anyone survived.
-
Information was scant and scattered.
-
We’d heard that the driver was at the hospital—pulled
from the wreckage in the river.
-
At least twenty cows had died from the impact
or were shot on site.
-
Some escaped into the woods, and we found
the body of one who had tried, but succumbed
-
to his internal injuries.
-
And there were eight survivors who’d been
caught, but their current location was unclear.
-
Shawn made call after call, tracing their
path, finally getting a tip that they were
-
being held at some back-roads location registered
to a trucking agency.
-
But we arrived to find it largely abandoned,
save for an idling empty livestock truck—
-
a striking contrast to the mangled remains of the one I’d been inside only
-
half an hour ago.
-
While Shawn spoke with the driver, I went
around back, finding a group of baby cows
-
huddled together in a holding pen.
-
Recently taken from their mothers, they were
likely awaiting transfer to either the veal
-
or beef industry—their impending slaughter
not a matter of if, but when.
-
A man—whom I’ll call Chad—had answered
the sanctuary’s plea for a trailer and met
-
us at the stop off.
-
It was clear within a few minutes that he
didn't quite understand what he'd volunteered for.
-
This is Iowa.
-
The center of America's industrial agriculture.
-
The first state to pass the modern Ag Gag
laws.
-
For many residents, the concept of a farmed
animal sanctuary isn’t just unheard of—
-
it’s incomprehensible.
-
But it would be a mistake—and one we activists
often make—to dismiss, or become combative
-
with people like Chad.
-
When Shawn got a new lead about an equally
vague location, the driver of the empty truck—familiar
-
with the area’s industry stops—offered
to escort us.
-
DRIVER: I’m headed up that way.
-
I’ll just put my turn signal on where you’re
supposed to turn.
-
SHAWN: Okay, perfect. We'll follow you. Thank you so much.
-
EMILY: Thanks!
-
And so we began our unlikely caravan: a livestock
truck leading two vegan activists rounded
-
out with a beef farmer and his trailer—all
off to save some cows.
-
And this time, we found them.
-
The man in charge—whom I’ll call Frank—was
a bit wary at first.
-
FRANK: You better get ahold of whoever these
cattle belong to.
-
In the system we've created, the eight surviving
cows were someone’s property.
-
And like any business, the “owner” has
to assess if they were financially worth recovering.
-
While Shawn made another call to what we hoped
was the company with legal ownership,
-
SHAWN: Have you guys filed a claim with your
insurance yet?
-
I spoke with Frank about the crash site.
-
FRANK: Yeah, I thought for sure he was dead.
-
He was one of the first people on the scene
and described how initially, they’d mistaken
-
the driver’s screams for just another cow
crying out in pain.
-
FRANK: They could—they could hear him going
“Get me out of here.”
-
They’d found him pinned in the wreckage,
his mouth filling with water from the river
-
as he called for help.
-
Finally, we were given the go-ahead.
-
SHAWN: Alright, thank you so much. Yep, buh-bye. Alright, let's do it.
-
FRANK: That’s right. Back ‘er up.
-
And there they were.
-
Shaken and terrified.
-
With no way of knowing that this final trip
of their very long day, had them bound for home.
-
Arriving at the Sanctuary, the residents gathered
to check out the newcomers.
-
And as the eight brothers stepped out of the
trailer, they took their first steps
-
as free individuals.
-
Liberated…by accident.
-
As we watched them huddle into the far corner,
shielding the most injured of the group—still
-
on high alert—Chad, the beef farmer who
answered the desperate call of some vegan
-
activists, making this entire rescue possible,
asked me a question I will never forget:
-
CHAD: They just live until they die, or what?
-
“Yeah,” I said.
-
“They live until they die.”
-
In order for us to be able to do what we do
to animals and maintain the image we have
-
of ourselves as good and decent people—animal
lovers, even—we’ve had to distance, disconnect,
-
and distract ourselves.
-
Construct systems so astoundingly convoluted,
that the concept of a chicken, pig, or cow
-
living until they die is literally beyond
our grasp.
-
Yet at the same time, we like to believe that
the animals we eat lived a good life.
-
That they were well-treated.
-
We shield ourselves from the violent deaths
they're destined for, shuttering them inside
-
metal boxes at which we dare not look too
closely, lest we meet their eyes and remember
-
that these…are individuals.
-
But when a truck flips, spilling their bodies
and blood across our path, we're confronted
-
not only with the horror of their suffering
and deaths, but also with the very thing we've
-
had to work so hard to suppress and avoid:
our compassion.
-
These accidents expose the depth of our disconnect
and lay bare our conflicting beliefs: people
-
wince at the news of a livestock truck crash,
mutter "those poor cows" or "how awful for
-
those pigs" without the slightest awareness
of the absurdity of their statements.
-
Because these very same people will later
consume the flesh and secretions of some other
-
"poor" cow, pig, or chicken who had the great
fortune of their truck making it to the slaughterhouse.
-
It all ended with survivors…
-
That accident that day—as horrifying as
it was, and as terrifying as it must have been
-
to experience—for these eight cows, it was
a miracle of sorts—their only chance at life.
-
Because had everything gone according to plan,
they’d have been killed, bled out and hacked
-
apart—their deaths no less brutal than their
brothers who died in the crash that day.
-
But like the other over 822,000 cows slaughtered
that day behind closed doors, they’d have
-
passed from existence without a single gasp
of shock or even quiet whisper of
-
“those poor cows.”
-
Find out what happened to the survivors in
part two.
-
To support the life-saving efforts of IFS,
visit IowaFarmSanctuary.org and to help Bite
-
Size Vegan create more videos like this, see
the support link here and in the description.
-
Please share this video and subscribe for
more content.
-
Now go live vegan, and I’ll see you soon.