In the summer of 2017, I spent a week at the Wyoming County Fair (NY). It was a week of parades, car shows, contests, tractor pulls, a midway, and meat auctions. Buildings housed cows, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, and rabbits. Farming families tended to the animals. The pig auctions made me cry. Cows spent the week chained into stalls, while farmer kids fed them and caught their poop with shovels. Other kids tended to sheep and goats and taught me about the difference between breeders and meat goats. Those same kids socialized, wrestled, and used reclining pigs and cows as pillows. I seethed when the pigs were shoved into the auction chutes using crop sticks. I cheered when one escaped and ran out of the livestock area. I shouted "stop!" when kids slapped them to get into the chutes. FYI, I'm a vegan.
My main takeaways: I felt a strong alliance with the "livestock", anger knowing that slaughter would follow for many, and a love for the kids, as they tended to the animals, rolled in the straw, and displayed camaraderie, responsibility, and playfulness.