The following is a letter to the editor in a local weekly newspaper.

To the Editor:

This Sunday, May 8th, is Mother's Day, when we celebrate the cherished bond between mother and child. But dairy cows, world-wide symbols of motherhood, never even get to see their babies.

The newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth and chained by the neck in tight wood crates. They are denied mother's milk and love as well as natural food and water, fresh air and sunshine, straw bedding, or any movement. They suffer from chronic anemia, diarrhea, and respiratory disorders.

The product of this misery, laced with saturated fat, cholesterol, antibiotics, and hormones, is sold in gourmet restaurants as veal.

Because of consumers' revulsion at these abuses, the infamous veal crates has [sic] been banned by the European Union. Yet the U.S. diary [sic] and veal industries have resisted similar reforms.

This Sunday and every day, we should honor motherhood by dropping veal, milk, and dairy products from our diet.

I can't recall that I've ever eaten veal, but this letter is enough to make me want to run out and buy some veal steaks and slap them on my ever-ready Weber charcoal grill.