Howdy friends and neighbors. It’s been a while since I wrote a red hot one, so you better grab your leather gloves to read this one! No wait, leather wouldn’t be right because some poor animal was exploited to provide the leather. So, grab your cotton gloves and… no wait, a by-product of cotton is cottonseed and that is used for animal feed that fed the animal that could have been used for the leather. So, grab your synthetic PVC gloves… no wait, petroleum products make synthetic material and millions of years ago some poor animal lost it’s life in a tar pit caused by global cooling because man wasn’t burning enough dinosaur chips to create a greenhouse effect. Petroleum products are made from dead animals so I guess you should hold this article with your bare hands and let them burn!
The other evening I was making the rounds though my new mama cow pasture when I discovered a recently converted heifer who was learning to be a cow had gotten herself on the wrong side of a hot wire fence and her baby had not figured out how to get over there with her. The poor calf was badly de-hydrated and it wasn’t the calf’s fault or the mama cow’s fault. It was my fault because I hadn’t been doing my job of making sure my animals were cared for in the proper manner. Anyhow, no need playing a blame game, the situation I had at the time was a sick calf and a worried new mama cow. The calf was to the point it could not stand on it’s own and nurse the cow that was licking it and trying to encourage it to stand.
To the Tucker Cattle Co. hospital we went. Tan (my now famous feed truck) was instantly converted to an animal ambulance complete with siren and a flashing yellow clearance light. (I’m going to tighten that alternator belt and fix that electrical grounding issue one of these days.) I took the weak, dehydrated calf out of the front seat and proceeded to my makeshift emergency room. “Get me the tuber S.T.A.T!” I hollered to the red headed nurse (my wife) and we got some fluids down this little heifer’s throat as quickly as we could.
Then we put the new mama cow into the squeeze chute so we could relieve the pressure off her swollen bag. We hand milked her in the headlights of the ambulance (Tan), we caught the mother’s milk in the tuber bag so we could give it to the calf. Sweat poured off of me as I tried everything to save my calf. And what do I hear on the radio? Carrie anti-animal agriculture Underwood singing some crap about ripping some guys leather seats and carving her name in his paint job on his four-wheel drive pick-up truck! It’s close to ten o’clock at night, I’m bent over hand milking a new cow while trying to keep her heifer calf alert and going and my local radio station is playing a song from a bunny hugging, Humane Society of the United States contributing, air head! I apologized to the cow and the calf for submitting them to the torture of her singing and I quit what I was doing and un-plugged that stinking radio!
It hit me at that point that all the hundreds of millions of dollars that the anti-animal agriculture groups have weren’t going to help this one little calf at all. HSUS has a budget of over 160 million dollars that pays lobbyists, politicians, and supports anti-animal agriculture legislation. Many of you reading this may not even realize that little if any of that huge budget goes to fund local animal shelters. Their marketing campaigns trick you into thinking that the donations they receive go to help little Fido that lost his home and has found himself in the local shelter. In reality, they do nothing for the actual care of animals; their purpose is to end animal agriculture, hunting and meat eating in general.
Here is the truth! Yes, I am trying to save this heifer calf in the dark on a Saturday night during a holiday weekend because it is the difference between profit and loss for me! The sole purpose of this animal is to convert God given natural resources (grass and grain) into consumable protein products for human consumption at the same time providing my family with a profit. PETA, Farm Sanctuary or HSUS are no better than me. We all use animals for profit! At least I’m trying to tell you the truth and all I have is a $200 computer!
My friend Trent Loos says that death with a purpose gives meaning to life. If that little heifer dies tonight, she is going to die without purpose. Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, or even Rush Limbaugh who support these anti-private property, anti-agriculture, and anti-meat eating groups know absolutely nothing about what I do!
Another truth comes from Genesis 9:1-3, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the Earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all beasts of the Earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea: they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”
It’s my job to take care of the animals in my care! Not singers, actors, politicians, or lobbyists. It’s my job! I thank the good Lord daily that I’m blessed with a task of caring for animals and I ask Him daily to provide ME with the wisdom to do the best I can!
And yes, I even said a prayer for that little heifer calf.
I’m Monte Tucker, and that is what’s under my COWBOY hat!
