Bovine mothers also have much in common with their human counterparts. "They carry their young for nine months, just as we do, and then they suckle them for between nine and 12 months, like so many human mothers." When their babies are taken away they bellow and moan for days, and have been known to stand gazing at the spot where they last saw their calf for six weeks or longer. Considering these things, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson asks, "Can anyone doubt that they mourn and grieve and love their children as much as we love ours? Who are we to dismiss with human arrogance the depth or importance of these feelings?" And who are we with human arrogance to cause this mourning and this grief for the sake of a slice of cheese or a dish of ice cream?
---The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights, by Norm Phelps---
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