It wasn’t your typical security camera footage: A woman in Warner Robins, Georgia, awoke at 3 a.m. to an alert from her Ring doorbell—dozens of cows had risked everything by escaping from a nearby dairy farm and coming into the suburbs.
While the video’s captions attempt to be comical, there’s nothing funny about these cows’ experience of freedom for perhaps the first time—for them, it was a matter of life or death.
The woman recalled how the cows made themselves at home:
There was one cow in particular [who] I caught on camera trying to eat the Ring Video Doorbell … [they] ended up giving up and enjoyed a plant, instead.
According to reports, the herd of cows escaped from a dairy farm roughly 2 miles from the woman’s home before being returned to a life of exploitation—PETA wishes they’d instead been permanently granted the freedom they briefly attained and definitely deserve.
The cows should have been moved to a reputable sanctuary, where they could have bonded with other rescued cows, nursed their calves, and lived in peace.
Clearly, cows value their freedom and families just as humans do. They are social beings, preferring to spend their time with other cows, and they form complex relationships, much like the dogs we share our homes with. So it’s no surprise, really, when they decide to band together and try to escape from dairy farms or other animal-abusing industries. We’ve seen similar stories many times:
These cows looked so frightened as they ran for their lives in Pico Rivera!
They risked everything to escape slaughter, but they will all likely still be killed.
Cows—and all animals—are individuals with thoughts and feelings, not food. pic.twitter.com/Z5iEv9vURK
— PETA (@peta) June 23, 2021
She's trying with all her might to escape being slaughtered.
This cow saw a chance to survive and made a break for it, but there was no way out.
If you ever doubted the fact that cows are individuals who desperately want to live, here is your proof. pic.twitter.com/9xl8dK02Sw
— PETA (@peta) January 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/peta/status/911356950562115584
https://twitter.com/peta/status/1128421813606854656
She saw what happened to the cows before her and tried to escape — but there was no way out.
Stop fueling suffering like this, go #vegan. pic.twitter.com/V4AqdZ69sb
— PETA (@peta) October 20, 2020
Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren has stepped in to help save the life of a cow that eluded capture for more than a day after a herd escaped from a Southern California slaughterhouse. https://t.co/46eWCySe9q pic.twitter.com/JTxfMA6klH
— ABC News (@ABC) June 25, 2021
Anyone would flee from a situation in which they were being forcibly impregnated, their babies were then being torn away from them, and they were destined to be slaughtered once their bodies gave out. We invite anyone who cheered for these cows during their escape or mourned their certain deaths upon their return to the clutches of the dairy industry to extend that compassion to all cows—and all other animals—by going vegan.
