Taking cattle to be slaughtered was such an ordeal for Jay Wilde that he took drastic action – which has inspired an award-winning documentary

Jay Wilde had always disliked taking his cows to the abattoir. He had worked on his father’s beef farm since he was old enough to pick up a rake, and it was the kind of place where slaughter seemed as immutable a part of farming as the turn of the seasons.

But something about it felt wrong. The cows never wanted to go in the trailer, and when they got to the slaughterhouse, they didn’t want to come out. Sometimes, as he coaxed his cows off the trailer, Jay would smell the blood of the last animals to be slaughtered there. He had raised these cows from birth and knew their moods well; it was obvious that they were now confused and unhappy. He wondered if they could smell the blood, too.

Later, driving the empty trailer home, Jay would find himself dwelling on what had just happened. He felt guilty about the fate of his cows. He felt as if he’d betrayed them.

And so Jay, the beef and dairy farmer, became a vegetarian. His father, Norman, had no complaint, so long as his son kept working on the farm. Jay stayed; it was all he knew. He’d stopped eating meat, but nothing else changed.