Thursday 21 November 2013

'Mercy Mild' by M. Dudley Ward

'Years ago I once saw a farm girl surreptitiously brush a tear from her eyes as she put a finishing touch to her careful grooming and said "Goodbye, old thing" to her charge - a beautiful young white heifer who nuzzled her face and gazed at her wonderingly. That girl's emotion was a tiny spark of heaven in prevailing hell. The whisper of Love momentarily asserting itself over the raucous yell of Money. Why should Peace and Goodwill to men be offset by this colossal carnage - this spate of savagery against poor creatures - descendants of those who offered their humble hospitality to a desperate Family when the door of every human inn was slammed against them?' From an essay published in The Vegetarian News (Winter 1952 edition)