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The kitty shows fear and despair when feeling that it would go to the slaughter, but she could hardly imagine what her future held for her

Everyone has the right to choose their food, as long as it has legal origins. However, it is very important to be aware of how food is produced, the impact it has on the environment and our health. The agricultural industry provides us with packaged and cut meat. We do not need to face the process of raising animals and slaughtering for their own consumption, carried out by our ancestors and still present in small communities. For this reason, it is often difficult to imagine that that hamburger was once a living being.

Kitty Emma is one of those living beings that would become a hamburger, steak, etc. The dairy farm where she lived went bankrupt, and the last 25 cows at the site were destined for slaughter. When placed in a trailer, her eyes were wide and filled with tears, revealing the dread and despair of an animal that felt its end near. It's heartbreaking, but not for long.

Unfortunately, Emma's other 24 cows were killed before the NGO volunteers Kuhrettung Rhein-Berg could rescue them. But Emma would have a different ending - she could hardly imagine that the long-awaited freedom was in her destiny.

Emma was taken to an organization sanctuary Kuhrettung Rhein-Berg, in Germany, thanks to a group of people dedicated to the animal cause. The NGO rescues dairy cows and retires them on an old farm, where they can live naturally the rest of their days, under better conditions of well-being, until they die very old.

Upon reaching the sanctuary, she was released into a spacious pasture filled with green grass and other cows. She walks fearfully into the new house, until other cows "greet" her. They sniff each other enthusiastically, as if they're all going to reassure her that everything is going to be okay.

Before her arrival at the sanctuary, Emma's life was unnatural. Cows are a business. They produce meat, leather, milk and dairy products for human consumption. The brutality of “modern” slaughterhouses exists all over the world. A simple reasoning can conclude that: "They are fed and well cared for, they live better than many humans". But unfortunately this is not quite the case - we can cause animals great suffering by exploiting them in other ways, even while ensuring their survival and reproduction.

Domesticated animals inherited from their wild ancestors many physical, emotional and social needs of which they are completely deprived on farms. They live in tiny cages, have their horns and tails mutilated, mothers are separated from offspring, etc. Animals suffer a lot, but they live and multiply.

Cattle in the wild behave like a social animal. To survive and reproduce, evolution made them learn to communicate, collaborate and compete effectively. Like all social mammals, such as puppies and kittens, wild cattle have learned the necessary social skills. Evolutionary characteristics conferred a taste for playing and a desire to bond with their mothers.

But on farms, the calves are separated from their mothers, placed in a small cage, vaccinated, given food and water, and, when they are old enough, inseminated with bull sperm.

From an industrial production perspective, these calves no longer need any bond with their mother or mates to survive and reproduce, as their needs are met by humans. But, from a subjective point of view, the calf still has a strong desire to bond with its mother and to play with other calves. As these impulses are not fulfilled, the calf suffers greatly.

The sanctuary that welcomed Emma accepts donations through Paypal, find out more on the organization's website.

The video that shows Emma is subtitled in German, but the images are universal and even those who don't understand the language can be touched by the cow's story.

Check out a little more about the sanctuary that welcomed Emma in the video and see a little of the life of the happy free cows (subtitles in English).