After his father died in 2011, Jay Wilde inherited his family’s small beef farm in the English county of Derbyshire, and quickly found himself in an excruciatingly difficult position. A vegetarian for more than 25 years, his deep concern for animals only increased as he spent endless hours with his herd. Coming to recognise them as individuals with rich inner lives rather than just ‘units of production’, Wilde eventually found the emotional burden of sending his cattle to the abattoir too crushing to bear. In 73 Cows, Wilde and his wife Katja recall how they came to make the logistically and financially challenging choice to transition to vegan-produce farming. Melancholic yet stirring and gently hopeful, this short documentary by the UK director Alex Lockwood deftly traces the complexities of Wilde’s decisionmaking process. In doing so, it reaches far beyond the English countryside, asking viewers to reckon with the moral intricacies of eating animals.
videoEthics
Is a hands-on approach to animal slaughter more humane?
9 minutes
videoDeath
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6 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
One man’s quixotic quest to bring American bison to his Scottish homeland
16 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
An unflinching look at a provocative public dissection of a ‘surplus’ zoo lion
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A modern shepherd tending his flock looks for spiritual resonance in age-old work
10 minutes
videoLove and friendship
After 30 years of solitude, Peter forms an unlikely friendship with a fellow loner
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videoAnimals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
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videoIllness and disease
As a young man’s sight fails him, friendship and night fishing help to keep his bearings
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videoBioethics
Why finding creative ways to end our reliance on meat may be a moral imperative
3 minutes