Joaquin Phoenix saves cow, calf
One day after Joaquin Phoenix pleaded for animal rights in his Oscar acceptance speech, the “Joker” star made good on his word by helping to save a mother cow and her newborn calf from a Los Angeles slaughterhouse.
The 45-year-old actor, a well-known environmental activist and lifelong vegan, was filmed rescuing the cow and her calf from the Manning Beef slaughterhouse on Feb. 10, the Daily Mail reported.
Footage of the rescue, which was posted online Wednesday, showed Phoenix carrying the calf into a transport trailer that would take it and other animals to a nearby preserve run by the nonprofit organization Farm Sanctuary. Phoenix was joined at the rescue by his fiancee, Rooney Mara, and named the mother cow Liberty and her calf Indigo.
In a statement accompanying the video, Phoenix said he looked forward to watching Indigo grow up with her mother at the sanctuary. “Although we will continue to fight for the liberation of all animals who suffer in these oppressive systems, we must take pause to acknowledge and celebrate the victories, and the people who helped achieve them,” he said, giving a shoutout to Farm Sanctuary and Los Angeles Animal Save, the groups involved in the rescue.
He also praised Anthony
Di Maria, president and CEO of the slaughterhouse, for releasing the animals.
A day earlier, Phoenix stood on stage at the Academy Awards to accept the best actor Oscar for his performance in “Joker.” Phoenix left some viewers perplexed by a speech that went into graphic detail about how humans mistreat animals in their “egocentric” beliefs that they are at “the center of the universe” and entitled to “plunder” Earth’s resources.
“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable,” Phoenix said. “And then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”
In both his Oscars speech and his statement about the rescue, Phoenix tried to keep his tone upbeat and to emphasize kindness, generosity and building understanding across differences.
“I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think we have to sacrifice something to give something up, but human beings at our best are so inventive and creative and ingenious and I think when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment,” Phoenix said in his Oscar speech.