Essays

The Passion of the Cow

Simplicity and Moral Motivation

By Charles Comey

 

One evening in December a bunch of us gather on the second floor of a warehouse on the North Side of Chicago for a party. The warehouse smells delicious because baked goods are on offer. It is beautiful, full of plants. We are comfortable.

But conscience catches up with us. Now there is a cow dangling from the ceiling by one hind leg. This is one of the strangest and saddest scenes I have ever witnessed. Its neck is cut, but it is alive, still straining to see something; it seems to be stretching for the floor.

I turn to my companion: “What is going on?” She whispers that the invitation had made mention of “workshops.” We are to be edified.

This is “Meet Your Meat,” a video put on by an animal advocacy group. Ordinarily, Alec Baldwin would be narrating. Tonight, though, the sound system is not working, and I bet “Meet Your Meat” is more shocking in silence. In a pen, a bull has awkwardly buckled on one knee in pain that must be mixed with disbelief, because behind him a man is carelessly cutting off his scrotum with a pair of clippers.

 

 

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