{"id":757455,"date":"2019-06-14T07:46:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T11:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757455"},"modified":"2019-06-14T07:46:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T11:46:42","slug":"portraits-of-rescued-farm-animals-allowed-to-grow-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757455","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of rescued farm animals allowed to grow old"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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ISA LESHKO: Around 50 billion land animals are killed in factory farms globally each year. It is nothing short of a miracle to be in the presence of a farm animal who has managed to reach old age.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

MELISSA BREYER:<\/strong> ‘We are a species enchanted by the young \u2013 from kittens and puppies to nubile models and the soft shunning of older people. But there is a crack in our youth-obsessed culture and I think it is an important one: While we swoon for chicks and coals and cubs, we also love old animals. The thing is, we don’t have the opportunity to meet a lot of old animals. Pampered pets, sure. But farm animals, for example, don’t generally get the chance to live for very long \u2013 maybe six months? A year? Their “purpose” \u2013 in the dystopian thing that is factory farming \u2013 is to be born and then slaughtered to feed the two-legged animals with opposable thumbs.<\/em><\/p>\n

Which is why a new book of portraits showing the beauty and dignity of older animals from farm sanctuaries is such a poignant creation. The book,\u00a0Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries<\/a> (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is by photographer Isa Leshko and is the culmination of a long-term project more than a decade in the making… And this is one of the things that is so remarkable about the portraits \u2013 you can see each animal’s personality; their singularity and distinction. <\/em><\/p>\n

Each is a beautiful, living individual, not some abstract “thing” produced en masse at a factory for the purpose of fueling humans. The animals who are liberated and find sanctuary are the outrageously lucky ones \u2013 the lottery winners. As Leshko writes, around 50 billion land animals are factory farmed globally each year. “It is nothing short of a miracle to be in the presence of a farm animal who has managed to reach old age”.’<\/em>\u00a0 SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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