“Meet William and Harry. They are four week old dairy calf orphans. William and Harry have a very sad story, but are luckier than they can ever imagine. Two days ago we were presented with another such situation — two very heart-wrenching orphans who were in such critical shape that they would have been dead within 24 hours had we not intervened.

The dairy industry is one of mankind’s cruelest industries. Like humans, cows must bear young in order to produce milk; their gestation period mimics a human’s as they carry their babies for nine months. Millions of cows need to give birth everyday to satisfy our appetite for milk. So, what happens to all of those babies? The dairy farmers certainly cannot have the babies suckling the milk that was “meant for us humans”… so the babies are taken away from the moms at birth and they are placed into crates, one on top of the other, until they are four to eight weeks of age. At that time they are sold at auctions for sometimes less that one dollar per calf to the veal distributors. All of these calves are very weak, sickly, hypothermic and injured. They are tube fed by the auctioneers when they have time to get around to it, which barely keeps them alive until they are sold. More than half of them die of starvation and the elements before they reach auction. Once they are auctioned off, they are slaughtered within three days and are on dinner plates shortly after that.

William and Harry were rescued right off of the veal truck. Yes, they were on their way to a veal farm with almost 100 others in one truck alone where they would have met their fate. Something happened and in an instant, two tiny, orphaned calves had a change of destiny. With nowhere to go, we opened our doors and took them in. Our veterinarian told us that the odds were they would die overnight…

William, the whiter one, was so emaciated his ribs were protruding and the outline of his skull was easily seen. Harry, the blacker one, was so terrified when a human approached him his eyes would become huge and he would start shivering out of fear that would send him into shock. Both babies were critically hypothermic and their diarrhea, which is called scours, was so severe they could not retain any moisture in their bodies…

No matter whether you eat veal, consume dairy, are a vegetarian or a vegan, if you are simply human and looked into the eyes of these sad souls, you would agree that they deserve the same second chance as all of the other animals that come to us time and time again. (Personal note: after doing so and coming to this realization, you all better go vegan and stop supporting this horrendous industry. Crying about how bad it is and realizing they have a right to live does nothing if you don’t act on it.)

Interesting irony… one of the trucks that was seen in the auction vicinity filled with innocent calves and dairy cows for slaughter was the “Happy Cows California” truck. Talk about some misleading advertising! William and Harry are the truly lucky ones, and they will live out the rest of their lives as the Real Happy California Cows.” — Read the full story: click here.