From Melissa Breyer’s article for Treehugger:
We are a species enchanted by the young – from kittens and puppies to nubile models and the soft shunning of older people. But there is a crack in our youth-obsessed culture and I think it is an important one: While we swoon for chicks and foals and cubs, we also love old animals.
The thing is, we don’t have the opportunity to meet a lot of old animals. Pampered pets, sure. But farm animals, for example, don’t generally get the chance to live for very long – maybe six months? A year? Their “purpose” – in the dystopian thing that is factory farming – is to be born and then slaughtered to feed the two-legged animals with opposable thumbs.
Which is why a new book of portraits showing the beauty and dignity of older animals from farm sanctuaries is such a poignant creation.