Psalm Of A Downed Dairy Cow

“A cow’s a piece of machinery.  If it’s broke, we try to fix it, and if we can’t, it’s replaced.”

                                                 ~ quoted in Dominion, The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully

            Following up last week’s post on animals and Sabbath, and in keeping with a Lenten theme of penitence, I offer this “psalm.”  It is written from the perspective of a downed dairy cow (that is, a cow so exhausted from over-breeding and over-milking that she cannot stand or walk) in a factory farm, where animals are given no rest, but are manipulated solely for profit, without regard to their most basic needs. This is a system that disregards the rhythm of work, play, and rest, that, as Ex. 20:8-11 tells us, are woven into creation and into the Sabbath commandment, as discussed in last week’s post.

            We know that farm animals have a great deal more intelligence, self-awareness, and emotional depth than previously believed.  They know pain, fear, and loneliness. Those on factory farms know these emotions intensely.  Farm animals do cry out - with bellows and squeals and squawks - and just as the God of the Exodus heard the cries of the slaves in Egypt which were not intentionally cries or prayers to God, so I believe he hears the cries of the animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.  This psalm is my effort to render those cries and my understanding of the divine response into a theological representation. 

            Although I have chosen dairy cows for this effort, a similar psalm could be written for any animal in a situation of institutional cruelty.  Nevertheless, in order to understand the particular verses, it is important to know something about the reality of life for dairy cows on factory farms.   To that end, what follows is an abridged version of information from Farm Sanctuary, found at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/learn/factory-farming/dairy/  :

• Like all mammals, dairy cows must be impregnated in order to produce milk. Cows in the dairy industry spend their lives in a constant cycle of impregnation, birth, and milking with just a few short months of rest between pregnancies.

• Nearly all cows used for dairy in the U.S. are eventually slaughtered for human consumption. At an average of less than 5 years of age, exhausted cows are considered “spent” and sent to slaughter, and millions of them are eaten by Americans as hamburger. In a natural setting, a cow can live more than 20 year
• Usually just within hours of birth, calves are taken away from their mothers. Calves can become so distressed from separation that they become sick, lose weight from not eating, and cry so much that their throats become raw.
• In the vast majority of dairy operations in the U.S., cows spend their lives indoors, typically on hard, abrasive concrete floors, frequently connected to a milking apparatus.

• In 2007, the average cow in the dairy industry was forced to produce more than 20,000 lbs. of milk in one year — more than double the milk produced 40 years before. Breeding cows for this unnaturally high level of milk production, combined with damage caused to the udders by milking machines, contributes to high levels of mastitis, a very common and very painful swelling of glands of the udder.
• Arguing that it improves hygiene, dairy producers cut off cows’ tails, called “tail docking,” either by placing a tight rubber ring around the tail until it falls off or by cutting it off with a sharp instrument. Each method causes chronic pain. Cows use their tail to swish away flies and can suffer immensely during fly season.
• Investigations have found that cows who collapse because they are too sick or injured to walk or stand, known as “downers” by the industry, are routinely prodded, dragged, and pushed around slaughter facilities.

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Photo: Farm Sanctuary

Nearly all of the language in this “psalm” is directly from the Book of Psalms, reflecting the parallels between human and animal suffering from injustice and physical abuse.  I have changed a few words here and there, such as “shepherd” to “cattleman” and “bread” to “grain,” but all the references to animals are original in the Psalms.  

Psalm Of A Downed Diary Cow

1    In you, O Lord, I seek refuge for my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.

2    I have become like a broken vessel. 

3    Hear my prayer, O Lord; do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. 

4    For my days pass like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.  My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my grain.  

5    I can neither stand nor walk, yet all day long my enemies taunt me.  They have broken my strength in midcourse; the have shortened my days. 

6    Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?

7    Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

8    I am in despair.  I am lonely and afflicted.  I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.  My heart is anguished within me and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. 

9    My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

10  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; I am lain in the dust of death.  

11  My wounds grow foul and fester.  My udders are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.  I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. 

12  For the enemy has beaten me, crushing my life to the ground, making me lie in darkness with those long dead.

13  Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.  I stretch out my head to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. 

     

14  When the helpless cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.

15  He has pity on the weak and the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight!

16  O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them? They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow. 

17  Humans cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.

18  Yet you have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. 

19  Yet in arrogance the wicked persecute those whom you have given into their care. For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart, those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord. In the pride of their countenance the wicked say, “God will not seek it out.” 

20  But you do see! 

21  For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.

22  You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, O Lord, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth. 

23  Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

24  The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. 

25  For every wild animal of the forest is yours, O Lord, and the cattle on a thousand hills.  You know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is yours.

26  The Lord is my cattleman, I shall not want.  He will make me lie down in green pastures; he will lead me beside still waters.  He will restore my soul and I will graze on tender grasses with the Lamb Who Was Slain.

       

Psalms from which these verses were taken

1         Ps. 31:1, 10

2         Ps. 31:12

3         Ps. 102:1-2

4         Ps. 102:3-4

5         new; Ps. 102:24

6         Ps. 94:16

7         Ps. 71:4

8         Ps. 69:20; Ps. 55:4

9         Ps. 22:1

10       Ps. 22:14-15

11        Ps. 38:5-9

12       Ps. 143:3

13       Ps. 143:4, 6

14       Ps. 34:17-18

15       Ps. 72:13-14

16       Ps. 144:3-4

17       Ps 49:12

18       Ps 8:5-8

19       Ps 10:2-4

20      Ps 10:14

21       Ps 22:28-29

22      Ps 104:14

23      Ps 36:5-6

24      Ps 145:9, 13

25      Ps 50:10-11

26      Ps 23:1-3