Slaughterhouse workers agreed to spare a pregnant cow after footage of her ‘begging for her life’ went viral on social media.
The video of the animal was taken by those at the slaughterhouse, located in the town of Tongyu in Shantou City, in South China’s Guangdong Province.
Though the cow is said to have been pregnant, she was due to be killed and sold as beef. It’s unclear whether those at the abattoir were aware of the cow’s pregnancy when they were preparing for her to be slaughtered.
Take a look at how the cow ‘begged’ here:
In the footage, a worker could be seen attempting to lead the large animal through the mud with a rope, however the cow resisted and instead sank to her knees.
The seemingly scared animal is also said to have ‘shed tears’ as she was being pulled, and together the actions convinced viewers the cow was ‘begging’ for the lives of herself and her unborn calf.
The footage was shared on social media earlier this week and has since been viewed more than seven million times. On Chinese social network Weibo, a hashtag about the cow has had more than 140 million impressions.
After becoming convinced the cow was desperate to be saved, animal lovers came together to prevent her from being slaughtered.
Lin Wangbo, a local resident who took part in the effort, spoke to local media about the rescue, saying:
While being taken to the slaughterhouse, the cow started kneeling. At the slaughterhouse, when the man tried to lead the cow inside, it knelt down again and started crying.
He took a video and put it online, then we got in touch with him asking him not to slaughter the cow.
The determined animal lovers decided to buy the cow from the slaughterhouse and started crowdfunding to raise the money. They managed to raise 24,950 RMB (£2,735), and successfully saved the pregnant animal from death.
Lin continued:
We wanted to raise enough funds to buy the cow off him and set it free. In the end, we released it in the grounds of a local Buddhist temple.
The cow was taken to Huilai Jinshi Temple, where she will presumably give birth. Leftover funds raised by the animal lovers are to be donated to the temple.
Footage of the cow being led away from the abattoir showed her kneeling again, a gesture rescuers took as a thank you.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.