A first time mother. She is frantic. Her baby is missing. She is pacing desperately up and down the paddock, bellowing and crying, and calling for her lost boy, fearing the worst, having her fears confirmed. She is one of the thousands of ...defenseless females born into a quaint, verdant, organic dairy farm. She will spend her entire short life grieving the loss of baby after baby. She will be milked relentlessly through repeated cycles of pregnancies and bereavements. Her only experience of motherhood will be that of a mother's worst loss. In the prime of her life, her body will give, her spirit will break, her milk "production" will decline, and she will be sent to a horrifying slaughter, along with other grieving, defeated, "spent" mothers like herself.

Dear Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack,(Please read my addition to this form letter...I thank you in advance...the final paragraphs contain my thoughts...actually my prayer directed to you who can alleviate this suffering in real time...that time being now!)I understand that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants to cut funding for slaughterhouse inspections and slash the number of federal inspectors on chicken and turkey slaughter lines, leaving slaughterhouses to police themselves with almost no government oversight. I am writing to ask you instead to pursue more funding--and inspectors.With even fewer federal inspectors to observe live-hanging and to recognize bruising, injuries, and other signs of cruel handling practices, let alone the kind of wanton abuse that PETA has documented in bird slaughter plants (including that workers kicked birds, sexually abused them, stomped on their heads, slammed them into walls, and squeezed their innards out just for fun while the birds were still alive), these unacceptable practices will only get worse.Please pursue more funding--not less--for the USDA's inspection programs at pig, cow, bird, and all slaughterhouses.ACTUALLY, I AM ADVOCATING FOR: NO MORE ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION AND THE IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF RIDICULOUSLY OBSCENE OVER-BREEDING OF THESE POOR SENTIENT BEINGS...AND THE ABSOLUTE END TO SLAUGHTERHOUSES ... CERTAINLY PROPER STANDARDS AND INSPECTIONS ACCOMPLISHED IN A VERY RIGOROUS MANNER -- ALL ARE PART OF THE ABOVE MESSAGE...BUT MY ADDITION IS THAT THESE PURPOSEFULLY ENGINEERED BIRTHS AND DEATHS BY THE SECOND ARE BEYOND TRAGIC IN THIS 21ST CENTURY. LIFE MATTERS...ALL LIVING BEINGS MATTER. WE MUST LEAD THE WAY. THIS IS AMERICA. THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE PRECARIOUS MOUNTAINS OF LIVES.THE MADNESS AND HORROR MUST CEASE...animal experiments, turning living beings into meat and exacerbating the poverty and hunger of children in third world environments whose crops are consumed by our insane populations of farm animals WHO ARE BRED to be terrorized, torn apart and consumed.THANK YOU FOR CHANGING THIS SOONER RATHER THAN LATER. I LIVE 10 MILES DOWN THE ROAD FROM A STARTLINGLY LUCRATIVE OPERATION CONSISTING OF PIGS AND PIGLETS SOLD TO CHINA BY A VETERINARIAN...AND I AM IN NORTHERN INDIANA. I AM HEARTSICK EVERY DAY KNOWING OF THIS COLLUSION AND THE BLOOD MONEY CHANGING HANDS.THANK YOU FOR READING AND EMPATHIZING AND FOR STOPPING THESE ATROCITIES AND ENDING THE APATHY THAT ALLOWS SUCH BRUTALITY WHICH RESULTS FROM SHEER GREED.________________________________________________Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language ; Columbia City's Memory Lane North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum ; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark And you can download from iTunes Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't