By Laura Rantanen
Researchers and activists propose abandoning the term “animal” and enshrining the rights of non-human beings in Finland’s constitution.
“I have this core memory of asking a barn keeper, ‘What will Taisto do when he grows up, since he’s not a girl cow?’ I was 7 years old, and I got to bottle feed a motherless calf named Taisto. I loved Taisto with all my heart,” says author Laura Gustaffsson’s. “Taisto’s mother was, like other mothers without their babies, in a stall. Their milk was milked for human use.
“‘Taisto will be a bull when he grows up. Taisto is a different breed from these milking cows. Taisto is beef cattle,’ the barn keeper replied, smiling, and closed the pen door behind him. We were left alone with Taisto.
This article first appeared in Iso Numero, a magazine sold on the streets of Helsinki, Finland by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.