Harvey and the Lightning Herd by Helga Tacreiter and PETA
“Harvey and the Lightning Herd” serves as a studying alternative for readers of all ages.
“Hey, hey, infants, I want I might change the world.”
It’s simple to really feel powerless at the moment. Oftentimes, it seems like the best way the world works is solely how it’s — even when there’s a longtime system we want we might change. This goes double for teenagers, who don’t have the ability or social standing of adults and are anticipated to easily associate with the best way issues are.
However the fact is, we will change the world, even just a bit bit at a time. And that lesson is not any extra obvious than in Harvey and the Lightning Herd, written by Helga Tacreiter in partnership with PETA. This inspiring youngsters’s guide chronicles how one lady’s pledge to assist six calves finally ends up altering the lives of numerous animals in want.
Six Little Survivors
Helga loves most of her work on the farm. She definitely loves working with the cows — feeding them, brushing them, hugging them and even singing to them. However as a lot as she loves that side of her work, there’s one other half to it that breaks her coronary heart: when the younger calves are taken away from their moms.
Then there’s a horrible storm on the farm, and most of the herd stand below a tree, not understanding how harmful that’s with lightning flashing. When Helga makes it to the farm the following morning, she finds solely six calves nonetheless alive. Dubbed the lightning herd, Helga does her finest to nurse all of them again to well being.
One calf particularly, Harvey, is severely damage within the storm, and in consequence, he can’t eat on his personal and might solely stroll in circles. However regardless of these challenges, Helga offers it her all to attempt to assist him — hand-feeding him recent grass and guiding him across the farm. In her thoughts, “she knew she couldn’t change what had already occurred to him, however that didn’t cease her from making an attempt to make his life higher.” And with onerous work, her effort pays off — Harvey quickly begins to eat on his personal, stroll in a straight line and even run!
However the Lightning Herd is quickly developing on a yr previous: the age the place they’re despatched away from the farm. Helga is aware of in her coronary heart she wants to save lots of them, however meaning shopping for them — and a herd of cows prices a lot of cash. What’s she going to do?
Beginning a Dialog of Compassion
Whereas packaged in a kid-friendly method, Helga and the Lightning Herd doesn’t shrink back from the troublesome matters of right now’s livestock business. The separation of calves and their moms after a yr is frequent observe in farming, however that doesn’t make it proper.
Harvey and the Lightning Herd serves as a studying alternative for readers of all ages, to immediate a dialogue about making the selection to do the precise factor. We might all stand to be just a little like Helga, who took one take a look at Harvey and knew that whereas “she couldn’t change the entire world … perhaps she might change his.”
However how, precisely, did Helga handle to lift the funds to save lots of them? Nicely, you’ll simply must learn the story to seek out out Helga’s intelligent resolution! Relaxation assured, with the cash she raised, not solely was Helga in a position to save your complete herd, however she was even in a position to purchase land and located The Cow Sanctuary.
In the present day, the sanctuary continues as a house for rescued animals in have to stay out their lives in consolation. And all of it’s because of the onerous work of 1 lady and her love for the Lightning Herd.
Harvey and the Lightning Herd might be bought at www.store.peta.org/harvey-and-the-lightning-herd.html.
For extra details about The Cow Sanctuary, or to make a donation in honor of Harvey and the Lightning Herd, take a look at thecowsanctuary.org.
Helga Tacreiter was born in Poland and emigrated to the U.S. along with her household as a baby. For greater than 30 years, she has rescued cows and different animals sometimes used within the meals business. Every has a narrative. She has taken in cows who had been rescued throughout PETA’s cruelty investigations, from closed-down household farms, and from 4-H applications and college agriculture lessons after compassionate college students saved them from slaughter.
Style: Youngsters’s Books, Nonfiction
Creator: Helga Tacreiter and PETA