These Portraits Show the Beauty of Farm Animals Who Are ‘Allowed to Grow Old’

Photographer Isa Leshko captures the grace and resilience of elderly rescued farm animals who have been shown mercy

Left: Abe, an Alpine goat, age 21, was surrendered to a sanctuary after his guardian entered an assisted living facility, Right: Ash, a Broad Breasted White turkey, age 8. Ash was a factory farm survivor. (Isa Leshko, “Allowed to Grow Old,” University of Chicago Press April 2019)

With deep, soulful eyes, the 19-year-old Holstein cow stares out from the pages of Allowed to Grow Old, a collection of photographs of elderly farm animals. His name was Valentino. He had dark hair, with a tufty patch of white running down the top of his head. He loved carrots. And he forever changed the life of Isa Leshko, the woman behind the camera.

Leshko met Valentino at a California sanctuary in November 2011. By that point, she was several years into a project that had seen her take dramatic portraits of rescued farm animals as they entered the last stage of their lives. She had spent hour upon hour with aging horses, and pigs, and sheep and turkeys, many of them survivors of violent pasts. But when Valentino lumbered into Leshko’s world, she melted.

“His tongue was sandpapery like my cats’ tongues,” Leshko recalls.

Valentino had been born into the dairy industry, where male calves are typically consigned to veal production or killed outright; because they do not produce milk, they are of little use to dairy farmers. But Valentino met a rare and happier fate. As a calf, he had lax tendons that rendered him unable to walk. He was surrendered to the SPCA, and ultimately was sent to Farm Sanctuary, a shelter for rescued farm animals with locations in California and New York. In his new home, Valentino underwent months of physical therapy and grew stronger. He socialized with other cows and became friends with a dog named Sunshine. Against the odds, his life had been comfortable and long.

Teresa, a Yorkshire pig, age 13, was rescued en route to the slaughterhouse. (Isa Leshko, “Allowed to Grow Old,” University of Chicago Press April 2019)

For the entirety of her adult years, Leshko had been a vegetarian, taking care to buy organic dairy products that she believed came from humane farms. But she had never fully considered — or allowed herself to fully consider — what happens to the male calves of the dairy industry, or to the females once they have no milk to give. Learning about…