When the cows went home
We talk to the inspiring people behind the 2019 BAFTA winning documentary, 73 Cows
In 2017, farmer Jay Wilde hit headlines after donating his herd of cattle to Hillside Animal Sanctuary (hillside.org.uk). The compassionate farmer and long-term vegetarian (who is now vegan) had been struggling with his profession for years, after being born into the dairy trade, learning it from his father. When Jay took over the farm in 2011, he found that he could no longer bear to steal away the calves from their mothers, and after switching to beef production, quickly found that he did not want to take them to slaughter. Jay’s story inspired vegan filmmaker and director, Alex Lockwood, and led to the creation of the BAFTA-award winning documentary 73 Cows. Jay and Alex chat to us about the heart-warming story, the success of the film, and the future.
Jay Wilde, farmer
I’ve lived on the farm all my life. As a baby, my pram was pushed out into the farmyard, so that I could watch the cows. As soon as I was old enough to walk, I started to interact with the cats, dogs, chicks and ducklings that lived in the farmyard. I remember helping to take the cows to and from the field, feeding calves and caring for lambs. When I was old enough, I would feed and look after the dairy cows. Everybody on the farm would spend most of their time with the animals.
After having spent a long time tending to the animals, particularly cows, on the farm, it became obvious that they do have personalities and emotions similar to those experienced by humans. I began to feel uneasy about the widely accepted assumption that killing and eating them is an okay thing to do. But having been brought up in a situation where eating meat was an everyday way of life and regarded as essential to health, I went along with what everybody I had ever met considered to be the normal thing for humans to do. It wasn’t until I learned Transcendental Meditation, that I actually found people who rejected meat eating. Meeting these people provided an example that I could follow, to stop eating meat myself.