By Nathan Barton

Is this not a dangerous precedent?  They tried to escape, but were recaptured!  And yet, they are being pensioned off to go live in the lap of luxury and NOT perform the service that they were destined to all their lives!  Before we know it, the streets and roads of St. Louis will be filled with sacred cows, just like the streets of Indian towns and villages – wandering around, pooping where ever they do it, and eating people’s roses and lawns, scaring children and cats and dogs, and periodically dashing out into traffic and destroying a vehicle.

Several weeks ago, St. Louis Today reported that several head of cattle, which escaped from a St. Louis meat-packing plant (tastelessly called a “slaughterhouse” in the story), were rounded up by the cops and are being transported to an animal “retirement farm” where they can live out their lives and die, presumably to be buried on the place, and not even rendered for by-products and leather.  Apparently a lot of people with more money than brains are donating funds to support these beasts.

Meanwhile, according to other reports (or at least claims) thousands of St. Louis area children continue to go to be hungry each night.  Homeless shelters and food banks are in need of food to distribute to the poor and needy.

It is not just the cost of maintaining these cows in lush luxury – but the fact that the retirement farm could be used to either graze cattle which WILL be turned into meat, Jello, and other useful and needed things – or even (if you are a vegan) used to grow organic soy beans to feed the starving of Missouri and elsewhere.

Priorities?  Phaff!  I think that what we are seeing here is the emotionalism of too many people – Tranzi or progressive, or just people unwilling to think things through.  And organizations (even government organizations) willing to go along with the muddled thinking and feel-good actions in minor things, while continuing to tyrannize people and companies in other things.  I understand that the meatpacking company which owned the animals may have been paid for them, but that is not much different than the “recompense” made for stealing land through eminent domain.

Nor does “saving” these cows really make any difference: that plant will continue to slaughter, butcher, and package beef for the millions of Americans who eat it. And take the bones to make gelatin, the hides to make leather, and so forth.

No less seriously than my opening sentences, allowing cows to escape and “enjoy” their lives could lead to this – courtesy of Weird Al, Dana Lyons, and others: Cows with Guns.

Sadly, there are people who seem to take this sort of fun for real. They want to make rivers into entities with “human rights” (BBC, about a river in New Zealand), and equally strange actions elsewhere.  And supposedly serious and rational people go along with this sort of nonsense.

Seriously, cows are private property, and even if they are “running free” – there is no excuse to steal them (even if some payment is made after the fact).

Mama’s Note: While I personally think it is crazy to “rescue” beef on the hoof, old unwanted horses, or dogs that need big money medical care, it is no skin off my nose if people want to spend their own time and money doing so. As long as the non-voluntary government isn’t involved, especially using stolen tax loot to pay for it, they can be as nutty as they wish.

It’s quite a different thing with the convoluted and insane measures taken to “protect” some species or another because non-voluntary government and stolen tax money is always involved, destroying the lives of those who own the land, as well as upsetting the balance of nature in direct contradiction to their stated goals. If the so-called environmentalists really wanted to preserve one species or another, all they’d have to do is round up enough of the critters (or seeds of the plants), put them on their own property, and breed them like chickens or cows – or corn. Then they could release the excess animals into the wild to fend for themselves… as they had done for eons before.

I’ll leave it for now for readers to contemplate just how many species are truly “endangered,” and why they might think that the world would end if any truly became extinct. I have no idea what I should be concerned about various bugs, fish and so forth. Can’t remember any dire problems in my life due to the extinction of dinosaurs.