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The Animal Rights Memorial
Bovine Bodhisattva: Emily the Cow's Book to be available for Christmas
© The Peace Abbey |
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The Sacred Cow Animal Rights Memorial Featuring a life-size replica of Emily the Cow Sherborn has a Sacred Cow
SHERBORN - A Father's Day ceremony fit for royalty honored
one of Sherborn's own: Emily the Cow. Read the entire Dover Sherborn Press Article here
The Boston Globe By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan April 25, 2005 
COW COMES HOME, AGAIN Early Friday evening.Meg and Lewis Randa, who run the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, arrived at the center with a life-size statue of Emily the Cow, who escaped a Hopkinton slaughterhouse and lived out her days in a custom-built barn promoting a message of nonviolence and vegetarianism. Emily was bought by the Abbey in 1995, and until her death two years ago, she drew thousands of visitors (hundreds of whom forswore eating meat) and attracted media attention from around the world. The statue was made at a foundry in Newburgh, N.Y., and a crane was on site to place the statue on Emily's grave on the property, which also has a life-size statue of Gandhi.
Peace Abbey Welcomes Bronze Statue of Emily, its Beloved Bovine By Maureen Sullivan / CNC Staff Writer MetroWest Daily News Tuesday, April 26, 2005 
SHERBORN -- Nearly 10 years after she avoided becoming somebody's
dinner, and more than a year after she died, Emily the cow has returned
to town. This time in bronze. Weighing in at 2,300 pounds, about 800 more than she did in real life, a statue of the beloved bovine arrived at the Peace Abbey Friday afternoon in an open U-Haul, with Lewis and Meg Randa towing and the sculptor, Lado Goudjabidze, driving right behind them all the way from the foundry in Newburgh, N.Y., 3 1/2 hours away. "It's so wonderful. We've been giddy since 5:30 this morning, (when they went to New York)," said Meg Randa. "I was watching Emily in the rear-view mirror the whole time. It's wonderful to have Emily come home. You can feel her spirit here." The statue was supposed to have arrived in December, then earlier this year, but, Lewis Randa said, "Guess she was meant to be unveiled on Earth Day. What better time to honor her and her message?" The statue's new home is over the grave marker of the real Emily, who died of cancer in the winter of 2004. The site is surrounded by tablets set in stone that extol the virtues of nonviolence and a vegetarian lifestyle. There is also a larger tablet that gives a summary of Emily's life at the Abbey, from escaping a local slaughterhouse in late 1995, to her becoming a symbol of vegetarianism and nonviolence and her death. Emily is located between the statue of Gandhi that also was sculpted by Goudjabidze. 
There were two short ceremonies marking the statue's arrival. The
first took place while Emily was still in the truck, waiting to be
unveiled and moved by a crane. After a few words of thanks from Lewis
and others, including Goudjabidze and Paul Carey of Strata Bank, which
provided the financial backing for the statue, the head and body were
uncovered to an appreciative audience of about 30. "Lado got Emily’s eyes just right and captured her spirit," said Meg Randa. Dot Walsh, the Peace Abbey chaplain, also noticed the eyes. She said that while she was visiting the artist’s studio in New York City, she told the sculptor that the eyes weren't right. The sculptor ended up working another 50 hours on the head and eyes and everyone now agrees, the statue depicts Emily and her spirit perfectly. In addition to that detail, Emily the statue wears a blanket, a garland of flowers and has a hole in her left ear. 
According to Meg Randa, the blanket is a replica of one given to Emily
by a visiting group of Hindus (the original is at the Peace Abbey);
the flowers are another Hindu sign of respect; and the hole is from
Emily's pre-Abbey days when she was supposed to be slaughtered. It's
where she wore her ID tag. In her final days, the hole was decorated with a gold thread, part of a healing ceremony conducted by a Hindu priest from the temple in Ashland. Once unveiled, Emily was strapped up again and became airborne. She was moved about 80 feet in the air, then about 100 feet over to the gravesite, where a granite slab was waiting with pre-drilled holes. Once the statue was in place, Lewis Randa gave the face a loving and gentle touch, then had a golden thread placed in the ear. Walsh led the others in a short prayer before Lewis Randa wrapped it up with a "Viva Emily!" An official dedication is slated for Father's Day.
Featuring a life-size replica of Emily the Cow All great social movements have their memorials: Abolition and Civil Rights, Suffrage and Women's Rights, Labor and the Environmental and Peace Movements are among them. The Animal Rights Movement stands alone without a symbol to represent humanity's cherished dream of a cruelty-free world. "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948
Throughout Hindu literature and included in religious practice is the acknowledgement of the cow as sacred. Gandhi, like millions of Hindus in India, venerated and worshipped the cow and viewed cow protection among the greatest gifts of Hinduism to the world. "The assumption that animals are without rights is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality." - Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860 SACRED COW Animal Rights Peace Memorial is a place of pilgrimage whose time has come. It acknowledges the injustices animals have endured and serves as an urgent call to humanity, a cry that compels us to hear the voices of those who cannot speak on their own behalf.
"Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." - Thomas A. Edison, 1847-1931 This Animal Rights Peace Memorial inspires us to respect and appreciate other animals, as well as to envision a peaceful and compassionate world for all the earth's inhabitants. With the life-sized statue of Emily the cow, the Memorial is accompanied by bronze plaques that express the compassionate sentiments of such great thinkers as Albert Schweitzer, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein and contemporary animal rights activists John Robbins, Michael Tobias, Michael Klaper, Alice Walker, Fr. John Dear and many others. Lado Goudjabidze, an internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor, was commissioned to design this monument. Lado is considered a "national treasure" in his native Soviet Georgia where he was appointed to rebuild and beautify parks and cityscapes. Inspired by the country's first "Pacifist Memorial" (a tribute to world peace efforts). The SACRED COW Animal Rights Peace Memorial is a joint project of The Peace Abbey, and numerous other animal rights organizations.
A Brief History The Sacred Animal Rights Memorial was dedicated on December 24th
2004. a group of 60 people crowded onto a circular brick-and-granite
path known as the Sacred Cow Animal Rights Memorial.
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Adults
with camcorders and young children in colorful jackets and scarves
huddled together on the memorial, located just a few yards from
a memorial to pacifism which features a larger-than-life-size bronze
statue of Gandhi. At the center of the Animal Rights Memorial is
a large granite slab that marks Emily's grave and will eventually
serve as the base for her bronze likeness. On Friday, the slab was
draped for the occasion in a sacred blanket from India that Emily
used to wear, and was also dotted by several photos and other small
ornaments. A small metal censer sat on the ground nearby, steadily
emitting puffs of aromatic smoke. The ceremony was a casual, free-form
affair: memories of Emily were shared, mottoes from plaques that
adorn the Animal Rights Memorial were read aloud ("Cow protectionism
is Hinduism's gift to the world," "Wars kill animals,
too"), and a prayer written specially for the occasion was
recited. Meg Randa recalled the moment, nine years ago to the day,
when she and her husband first brought Emily to the Peace Abbey.
"As
the trailer turned into the driveway, she just kind of threw her
head out the side of the trailer and locked eyes with that Gandhi
statue," Randa said. "I realized we were really bringing
a sacred cow to the Peace Abbey." Yogendra Jain, a follower
of Jainism, an Indian faith which holds that all living things have
a soul, led the gathering in a prayer for peace. Afterwards, he
used a small silver bowl and pestle to sprinkle water from the Ganges
River over Emily's grave, a small bronze replica of the statue and
the heads of the crowd. And on a different note, Ali Koehler, a
student at the Peace Abbey's Strawberry Fields school, sang "Emily,"
a wistful song from the film "The Americanization of Emily,"
a 1964 comedy set during World War II starring James Garner and
Julie Andrews. Throughout the wide variety of tributes, the impact
Emily had on those who knew her was evident, as was her importance
to the Peace Abbey.