For thousands of people, raising cattle and sending them off to slaughter is just a routine part of making a living.

But this picture tells a different story.

The photo below was taken in 2011 during a 4-H livestock auction in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The boy in the photo, Tyler Boyer, 11, had raised Leonard the cow since he was a calf, and had just sold him to be slaughtered for meat. The boy stands next to the patient steer, burying his head in his neck and crying as he says goodbye.