Cruelty Witness: Forgotten Babies by Emma Hurst
Photo: Farm Transparency
Someone took your photo so you would not be forgotten, so your story could be told.
My darling, I am sorry. You would have been killed not long after this photo was taken. Someone took your photo so you would not be forgotten, so your story could be told. I’ll do my best to tell it.
Your mother wanted you. After she gave birth to you, you were taken from her. While you waited alone and afraid outside a slaughterhouse, she was miles away calling for you. She would have called for you until she lost her voice.
You were not allowed to stay because you are a boy. Boys can never produce babies or produce breast milk for their young. So in the cow milk industry, you are considered a ‘waste’. That’s why they took you.
That’s why they brought you there. Soon after this photo was taken someone would have put a captive bolt gun between your eyes and shot you. You would have been hung upside down and had your throat slit and then you would have bled to death.
An industry built by humans does this to make profit. Many people who pay to drink your mother’s breast milk, that your mother was naturally producing for you, don’t even seem to know that you existed at all.
I don’t know what else to say except I’m sorry. Humans have failed you.
But know this-there are many of us that know what happened to you. There are many of us sharing your story. There are many of us that will never give in.
Emma Hurst, Animal Justice Party MP, elected to the Upper House of NSW Parliament - Emma Hurst's Website
Emma Hurst is the first female Animal Justice Party MP, elected to the Upper House of NSW Parliament. A former psychologist, Emma has worked tirelessly for the rights of animals for many years with a background in campaigning, political lobbying, and media work.
Since she was elected in March 2019, Emma has used her time in parliament to bring animals to the forefront of political discussion: running inquiries into battery hens and animals in entertainment, preparing legislation to ban puppy farms, securing legislative reform on the link between domestic violence and animal abuse, banning the breeding and importation of captive dolphins, and campaigning against the use of animals in experimentation.