Joaquin Phoenix, lifelong vegan, saved a cow and her calf from a slaughterhouse
Almost immediately after his Oscars victory, Joaquin Phoenix gave a cow and her calf what they deserve.
The Joker star, who has been a vegan since the age of 3, during his Academy Award acceptance speech earlier this month railed against the fact that "we feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby ... and then we take her milk that's intended for a calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal."
But besides just using his platform at the Oscars to advocate for this issue, Phoenix was ready to take action literally the next day, when he visited a slaughterhouse in Pico Rivera, California, TMZ reports.
In a video, Phoenix is seen appearing deeply skeptical while talking to the president of the company that owns the slaughterhouse and ends up with the opportunity to rescue a cow and her calf, who are taken to a sanctuary. The actor ends up promising to send the slaughterhouse CEO photos of the cow and the calf in their new life, photos the public's certainly going to want a copy of after the heartwarming video.
Phoenix in a statement promised he'll continue to "fight for the liberation of all animals who suffer in these oppressive systems."
Throughout the 2020 awards season, Phoenix had been both advocating for issues he cares about in acceptance speeches but subsequently taking action as well. CNN notes he comforted pigs on their way to a slaughterhouse the day of his Screen Actors Guild Awards win, and just days after winning a Golden Globe, he joined Jane Fonda and got arrested at her climate change protests in Washington, D.C.
Phoenix said at the time, "I think sometimes we wonder what can we do in this fight against climate change, and there's something that you can do today, right now, and tomorrow, by making a choice about what you consume."
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