Cow with Ear Tag #1389

Take a look at the packaging on a container of milk and you're likely to see bucolic idylls of red barns, green pastures, and happy, well-treated cows. In truth, the distance from a living cow to a glass of milk is vast, and nearly impossible to grasp in a way that resonates with an average person ticking items off a grocery list. To translate this journey into tangible terms, Kathryn Gillespie had a brilliant idea: to follow the moments in the life cycles of individual animals-animals like The Cow with Ear Tag #1389.In contrast to the widely known truths of commercial meat manufacture, the dairy industry enjoys a relatively benign reputation, with most consumers unaware of this kitchen staple's backstory. The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 explores how the seemingly nonthreatening practice of raising animals for milk is just one link in a chain that affects livestock across the agricultural spectrum. Gillespie takes readers to farms, auction yards, slaughterhouses, and even rendering plants to show how living cows are transformed into food. The result is an empathetic look at cows and our relationship with them, one that makes both their lives and their suffering real-in particular, the fleeting encounter with the cow of the title, just one animal whose story galvanized Gillespie to write this book.The myriad ways that the commercial meat industry causes harm are at the forefront of numerous discussions today. The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 adds a crucial piece to these conversations by asking us to consider the individual animals whose lives we may take for granted.

"Gillespie is not the first person to analyze animal agriculture, but she provides a honest and human element to the journey that I found deeply moving. . . . This book is a valuable addition to a growing canon of literature that challenges our understanding of "normal," that will hopefully, as more people become aware of the horror, lead to positive changes for animals. . . . The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 is doing its part to open hearts and minds."-- "EcoLit", "There is much to be learned from Gillespie's book. . .She's remarkably sensitive to the ethical, methodological, and existential questions that come up when doing this kind of research. She explores the difficulty of getting approval for research on animals that we readily kill. She works through the many ways that commodification gets in the way of understanding animals. She reflects on the gendered expectations that affect her ability to gain access to her research subjects, as well as the way that they affect what she feels pressured to witness. And she is highly sensitive to the transformative dimensions of research, making some kind of lived response -- in her case, dietary change -- feel entirely necessary. . . . Gillespie does the reader a remarkable service in making herself visible in the text, letting us appreciate the way that her experience of doing this work shapes the work itself. It's rare to have such transparency, it's a model for anyone concerned to avoid the illusion that scholars are impartial spectators. The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 is worth reading for many reasons, but it's invaluable for this one."-- "Metapsychology", "The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 addresses a critical issue whose time for discussion has not only come but is in fact long overdue. Gillespie deftly excavates and narrates the singular moments of the dairy animals she encounters, and a very real story of the personalized cows emerges."--Yamini Narayanan "Deakin University", "How to help in a system that prizes profit over compassion is one of the main concerns in the book. . .We Americans have decided that some animals-- .g., cats, dogs, hamsters, parrots--are companions and that others--e.g., cows, pigs, goats, lobsters--are dinner. We argue over the ethics of those choices, but Gillespie raises a more fundamental question: What do we owe any animal, including the ones from which we take milk? Her answer as implied in The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 is that we should not make them suffer."-- "Washington Independent Review of Books", "I'm equal parts haunted and motivated by The Cow with Ear Tag #1389. . .This hard-hitting book explores, with thoughtful-yet-unapologetic precision, the life cycle of individual animals--such as '#1389'--transporting rapt readers to auction yards and slaughterhouses, and paving the way for vital new inroads to discuss what it means to be truly empathetic."-- "VegNews"

Kathryn Gillespie is coeditor of Critical Animal Geographies and Economies of Death.