Activists Claim Kansas City Cow Stampede Exposes Animal Cruelty

For most of us, this week's story about cows running wild in Downtown Kansas City was joke that brought some level of international acclaim. 

In fact . . . We noticed dedicated weekend newsies chiding anchors that there were actually two people hurt in the crash and they required hospitalization.   

Still . . .

There was no getting around the comedic cowtown clips and hot takes. 

Accordingly . . .

We offer an important glimpse of animal rights activists and cattle industry critics doing their very best to ruin all the fun in retrospect . . .  

To many people, freak accidents like these understandably look a little funny, even fantastical. “We take free roam BBQ very seriously,” one Reddit comment, with more than 400 upvotes as of this writing, said. “Much as I lament the tragic loss of bovine life, these videos have brought such joy to our fair city,” another commenter wrote.

The clips undoubtedly have a certain charm. If only the animals were as carefree as they appeared in those brief moments — and if only they could truly escape the fate that humans had in store for them. But as my colleague Kenny Torrella has written, the strange animal stories that periodically capture the public’s imagination almost invariably circulate stripped of the darker reality from which they emerge — humanity’s dominion over nonhuman animals. In this case, the cattle crash illuminates one of the most overlooked cruelties of modern animal agriculture: the nightmare of livestock transportation.

And here's the quick quote that offers a perspective most of us overlooked in what was mostly considered a midweek novelty story . . .  

"You’ve probably seen livestock trucks on the interstate, with their long, aluminum bodies and oval ventilation holes. They appear unremarkable enough from the outside. But the most important thing to understand about farm animal transportation is that these creatures are not handled like passengers, the way you or I would be treated on a long-distance trip. Rather, they are freight, loaded into metal trailers, often packed tightly together for long, very uncomfortable, sometimes dangerous stretches of highway travel. Picture yourself hurtling down the interstate in a box at 70 miles an hour, struggling to balance for many hours, without a seat, a seat belt, heating or cooling, or any of the other protections designed to keep human passengers safe and comfortable. As the hours pass, urine and manure accumulate beneath the animals’ feet, which can cause them to slip."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

A truck full of cows crashed in Kansas City. It reveals a bigger everyday horror.

Skip the paywall and read by way of Internet archive or public library card . . . But close readers on Saturday probably deserve the direct archive link because you're AWESOME and pay attention.