Cowschwitz of California

In the mid 1980’s, I had a job driving 18 wheelers half way to Los Angeles from the San Francisco Bay Area and back. Five nights a week, twice each shift, I went past Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California. At the time, I was reading up on European history and watching documentaries on the WWII Holocaust. As I drove by Harris Ranch and smelled the stench of the seemingly endless stretch of confinement pens where huge numbers of cattle were held, the term “cowschwitz” immediately came to mind. I often wondered why more people did not make the connection of these imprisoned animals to what happened to so many European Jews, gypsies, gays, disabled folks and others during WWII. But most people did not drive by a huge feedlot 10 times a week, especially not while learning about concentration camps. In those days, I was not vegan. I was not…