As a dairy cow named Emma suspected that she was going to be led to slaughter, tears started streaming down her face. She wasn’t ready to die. But the cow at the Kuhrettung Rhein-Berg Sanctuary in Germany had a better future ahead of her. While millions of cows are slaughter every year, she would be lucky enough to survive.
Earlier in that tearful day, Emma was strapped up and loaded into a trailer. She was driven across the country to a new home.
While she thought her destination was a mass execution-style slaughter house, which it was until animal rescuers stepped in, she was really being brought to a dairy farm. Her life was saved. Now just wait until you see the moment she realizes it. I didn’t know cows made such human-like expressions…
Because her peaceful life was suddenly turned upside down, Emma was horrified. While loaded on the trailer, tied up like cattle, she cried. Tears fell from her tortured eyes. She didn’t know these new people, the trailer was strange to her, and she was leaving the green grass fields that she had grown to love.
The video below shows the cow crying. She thinks her life is over. But the heartbreaking scene does not last long. Soon, she is released and allowed to freely roam the new green pastures of the sanctuary.
Watch as Emma is released from the trailer. Cautiously, she makes her way out and onto the green grass. There are other cows out there, mingling and feeding on the greenery. But Emma is not ready to join them. She is still an outsider.
But then a white-and-grey cow approaches Emma. They smelled each other and this cow welcomed Emma to her new home. Soon, others approached the new resident and gave her a warm welcome.
Before long, Emma realized that she was not going to be slaughtered. She was free to roam these pastures and enjoy a new life without worry and horror.
But her life had not been nice before this trip. Her environment was harsh and unforgiving. She was expected to constantly produce milk for the farm. And if she didn’t? Off to the slaughter…
For cows to produce milk, they must give birth to a calf, who would go on to nurse from its mother. But the dairy industry separates these calves from their mother shortly after birth. They don’t want the little one getting the milk they could sell for profit.
Cows like Emma must birth lots of calves to meet their diary-production quotas.
But as Emma began to get older, she was retired from the dairy farm. Before she was “done away with”, the rescuers at the Kuhrettung Rhein-Berg Sanctuary took Emma and brought her to their amazing home.
Now she can live and enjoy the pastures without the pressure of producing milk. She is not forcefully impregnated. The lives of Emma and the other retired dairy cows have improved dramatically.
