This is the artist’s statement that goes with Holy Cow debuted at the Fork-Off – Art and Animal Advocacy show at the Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery:
Holy Mother of Cows
prayings for all cows to be honored not eaten
to be marveled at not milked
wishing for all mother cow’s milk
to be offered only to their babies
and for the mammas to be able to keep their babies
and for mammas to not be artificially inseminated
and to not have, over and over and over again,
their calves taken from them
may they be free of
the grief the grief the grief the grief the grief the grief the grief….
may all baby cows know the comfort of their mamma’s love
their mother’s tongues tender cleaning loving,
nourishings of sweet warm white mamma’s milk…
not formula
made and fed by men
whilst babies bereft and confined in small pens
so we may have that which is truly theirs
and that’s the ones born girls
perhaps easier born boy
as suffering over sooner
may they range and roam freely-feeding,
nature-called
may they be safe, protected, held sacred
not scared, scarred hearts grief-struck
may humans respect, love, kindly provide
may the brutality,
of their lives ripped-from-them,
for us to carve
and consume
their bodies,
fully cease.
each cow holy, an individual
formed hoof-by-miraculous-hoof
and horn
and belly
and udder….
by mother
… nature
may their bodies remain unmutilated, their blood unspilled, unspoiled, may their eyes no longer grow-wide-with-fear and terror of no escape
may they feel the sun on their backs and sides and fronts
and their hooves and mouths know the warm-comfort of grass-grazings til their, nature-calling-the-time-and-tune-of-death, deaths
may we cherish their lives: “cow”, on this planet
as we cherish our own living and the living and loving of those we hold dear
may their blood remain life-giving rivers and channels within god-given bodies
and their skin stay theirs