For those who think that the non-human animals do not have feelings, it may come as a surprise that the animals really enjoy playing. The non-human animals who are farmed as commodities, such as cows, love to play, just like dogs and cats love to play.
For instance, Farm Sanctuary recently shared this 47 second video of their cow residents playing in the snow: Cows Frolic in the Snow.
I have watched that video so many times! It fills me with delight to see those happy cows, which helps to balance all the sadness I feel for the cows who are not so lucky — the cows who are enslaved for milk and slaughtered for meat. I pray for them, and I pray for all the humans who do not yet care about the suffering of the cows.
In their book, When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, authors Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy share stories of animals enjoying play, such as this touching one:
“Alaskan buffalo have been seen playing on ice. One at a time, starting from a ridge above a frozen lake, the buffalo charged down to the shore and plunged onto the ice, bracing their legs so that they spun across the ice, with their tails in the air. As each buffalo skidded to a halt, it let out a loud bellow, “a kind of gwaaa sound” — and then awkwardly picked its way back to shore to make another run.”
I would re-phrase that paragraph to not refer to the buffalo as “it” because they are someones, not somethings. I would say “he or she”... and I hope that anyone who is not yet vegan will meditate on the playful buffalo, and never eat their flesh again.
In The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy — and Why They Matter, Marc Bekoff documents that birds and many other species engage in social play. He writes, “Young cats, chimpanzees, bears, and rats, to name only a few, love to play to exhaustion.” And, “Pigs use play markers such as bouncy running and head twisting to communicate their intentions to play.”
Birds play! Does that spark joy in your mind? It surely makes me feel happy to think of birds playing. And it’s yet another reason why I feel so strongly that humans need to stop enslaving and slaughtering the non-human animals. They are innocent sentient beings who feel both happiness and pain, and thus it is wrong to harm them.
One by one, humans are making the ethical choice of going vegan. Thank goodness for that!
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Winter Forest Friends Painting: Greg Giordano.
