“I arrived here; it was a war scene.”
Those were the words of the veterinarian in charge of emergency care for a herd of over 1,000 buffalo that had been abandoned by a dairy farmer on his property in Brazil. Buffalo with sunken-in features and bones sticking out were too weak to stand. Some had to be lifted up from the ground using heavy machinery in order to be examined and cared for. Others fell and never stood back up. Close to 500 had died where their starving counterparts stood, the surviving living among the dead. It is too soon to say how many more buffalo will die from their condition, too far gone to save.
Claiming that there was plenty of food and water for the buffalo he abandoned, the farm owner suggested that some must have died from natural causes. There is nothing natural about the way these skin-and-bones buffalo died. No excuse in the world could justify the suffering that he inflicted on his animals, who depended on him and who must have earned him a good sum of money in the dairy business. We must demand that authorities conduct a thorough investigation and charge him to the fullest extent with animal cruelty! Sign the petition if you agree!