Meet your meat in Windsor, Nova Scotia

So instead of going to the Wiggle Waggle thing being put on by the CKC today over in Shubie today, I decided to go to the Exhibition up in Windsor with my Dad - he loves to watch the "Ox Pull" - which is what we went to see - you'll see the photos below - this photo is of a donkey that was mixed in with a bunch of mini-horses -
I thought that was really funny - you remember the Sesame Street song "one of these things is not like the other - 12 of these things are kind of the same..." - well that's what this was - 12 pony's and one donkey - he was very cute though.
And no rural visit would be complete without some photos of flowers -
They had 4-H contests for everything - flowers, tomatoes, pumpkins, apples, baking stuff - way more than the Halifax competitions at the Halifax Exhibition every fall.

Another big difference between this Exhibition and the one in Halifax is that this one was dog friendly! If only I'd known!

Bobby and Buttercup would have loved this place - this jack russell was manning a booth at a country clothier from Halifax called "The Cowboy Way" - and just when I was thinking to myself that the cow hide carpet matched the fur on the dog perfectly the people started talking about how the carpet was the hide of the dog's mother - but of course they were kidding!




There were dogs everywhere - out on the midway, in with the animals -
Even in the ring with the oxen - although I'm not sure he was meant to be in there -
Although he seemed to be having a pretty good time - I wonder what oxen shit tastes like to a dog?






I also went and checked out the farm animals - this sheep was very neat - he really liked the taste of my hand - although I think he most enjoyed the taste of the diamonds on the ring I was wearing!
I love these animals who have the eyes on the sides of their head - their eyes are always so big and expressive with such big eyelashes, and somehow they seem to be so good at giving eye contact.
These are some other kind of sheep that weren't so interested in human contact - that previous one loved to be scratched and petted - he was amazing for a city person not used to farm animal contact.



And then I got to my favourite part - the cows - and today I tried to look at them a slightly different way than I have in a while - I tried to look at them as animals that are on their way to slaughter in the not too distant future.

That's for two reasons - I'm currently taking an online course called "Most Good, least harm" from the Institute for Humane Education - and also because I watched a 2 minute video that's on Facebook right now called "I am Scared" - and it's 2 cows in a chute waiting to go through a door to be stunned so that they can be killed for slaughter - and those things can set a person to thinking.
I have talked about philosophies about meat eating here before - so I won't go into it again - but I'll give some links to the sites I've come across in the last few days.
There's a facebook group called "Global Earthlings" that's all about - I think you would call it, the abolitionist principles, of which I am NOT particularly for, but it's somewhat compelling. They have a link to the movie "Earthlings" that you can watch in it's entirety online.
The "I am Scared" video on Facebook can be watched by clicking here
- the Institute for Humane Education's website is here - and they also have a facebook page
The book "Most Good, Least Harm" book by Zoe Weil though is an amazing read - every page has something that has a life-changing thought on it if you choose to do something about it. It is truly an unbelievable book in the ideas that she's writing about regarding a new way that each of us can live our lives so that we can each be gentle, compassionate, and as it says on her website - "With a world steeped in materialism, environmental destruction, and injustice, what can one individual possibly do to change it? While the present obstacles we face may seem overwhelming, Zoe Weil shows us that change doesn’t have to start with an army. It starts with you. Through her straightforward approaches to living a MOGO, or “most good,” life, she reveals that the true path to inner peace doesn’t require a retreat from the world. Rather, she offers powerful and practicable tools to face these global issues and improve both our planet and our personal lives.

So now on to the oxen! I saved the best part for last - I also took photos of the oxen last year at the Halifax Exhibition and you can see those in photos in a post from last October - in that competition the winner pulled almost 10,000 pounds and today they only got up to I think almost 7,000 pounds.
I liked this guy - he seemed very nice to his oxen.
This was the guy who ultimately won the competition - and this was the winning pull - they were really working it.
I love it when the guys seem like they're pulling all the weight themselves and they almost fall down - or DO actually fall down when they're trying to get the oxen to pull the weight - that's always a big crowd pleaser - especially when their hats fall off or something like that! Now that's entertainment!