Happy Birthday Diego! Feb 9, 2017, Diego was born in the middle of a New England ice storm. Stout and healthy, yet soaking wet, with no way to dry from Mother Nature's wrath, we drove a pickup truck out to collect the shivering calf. We quickly transferred him into the bed of our truck and then drove him to our store. Tied with a flimsy piece of baling twine as a collar (to limit the cow patties inside), we toweled him off and dried his hair with nothing else than a hair dryer we stole from my bathroom (which has remained a highlander hair dryer and been used on several occasions since).

Because of the serious cuteness of this little Fozzie Bear, I shot a 21-second video and shared it on our Facebook page for what I thought would be the enjoyment of a few of our friends. Boy, was I wrong.......

What happened next could never be predicted... There were lovers, there were haters... 22M views, and 157,000 comments. We were interviewed by local news and newspapers, the BBC, and the Associated Press and even made it to the land down under 10,500 miles from home. Our story was picked up on multiple continents, dozens of countries, and thousands of publications. Some were accurate and offered friendly and accurate reporting about the unjust slander that took place.... some were not.

Why? Well, I don't think anyone would argue how cute this little bugger is. He was adorable and the reason I shot the video in the first place. But, it came at a time when people were politically polarized, angry, and not afraid to share their opinion or judgment of us, nor their perspectives on our farming practices. Our Facebook page became the platform for meat lovers vs vegetarian debates... ok perhaps more like shootouts. So many came to our defense because so many others tried to spin this into something negative with their "perception" versus the reality of the situation. It did get brutal and though I had to keep reminding myself there is no such thing as bad press, the comments and accusations were harsh and heartless and couldn't have been further from the truth.

We care about the well-being of our animals and try our best to give them a happy life. We simply dried off and warmed up a wet calf and immediately returned it to his mom. Would Diego have survived if we didn't get involved? I am still unsure, but it certainly goes against our human nature to not try to help. That's what we farmers do. We respect life, animals, nature, and the environment. We are connected and grateful.

What was the meaning of his name, Diego? During the height of the media hoopla, a father from Spain reached out to us and asked if we could name our calf after his six-year-old son. It was his birthday and he loved cows. And.... he was not remiss in mentioning that he did in fact love meat as he wanted to make sure we knew he was supportive of raising animals responsibly. And so our cute nameless, famous calf was named Diego after a young Spanish cow-loving boy.

Keira Farmer
Owner

February 9, 2017
Video of our new baby calf Pitcher Mountain Diego goes viral. Just a few of the news stories below.

Boston Herald article.
Union Leader article.
Concord Monitor article.
NECN article.
IFPress.com article.
CBS News article.

Pitcher Mountain Diego and Mom are doing great!