Mother as a noun: A woman or female animal in relation to her child or offspring. As a verb: To bring up a child or offspring with care and affection.

Family bonds are not exclusive to humans. Both humans and animals take extraordinary steps to protect, nurture, and raise their young. 

The animal kingdom is full of mothers who protect their babies, teach them to find food, and demonstrate behavior connected to mourning and stress when their babies are lost or taken away from them.

We're probably more familiar with seeing cats and dogs bond with their offspring but farm animals also form strong bonds with their offspring. However, because of how farm animals are kept, raised and slaughtered for human consumption, these animals are usually not able to act out their natural, instinctive behavior. 

Cows instantly form strong bonds with their calves. Directly after birth, the mother will lick and nuzzle her calf clean, making a unique sound which encourages the calf to get up and nurse.

In the dairy industry, calves are taken away from their mothers within hours or a couple of days after birth. This is done in order to have the mother cow produce milk and to take her milk for processing, in order to maximize profits.

Not only is this stressful and upsetting for both the cow and her calf, mother cows have been found searching fields for their calves for miles around, and if confined within a small space, tend to make loud distressed noises for weeks on end.

It has been observed that calves that who are taken away try to suckle factory worker’s fingers to help ease their separation and suffering from not being able to suckle their mother's udder.

Human mothers and mother hens have something very important in common – the welfare of their children. But on factory farms, the hens have no opportunity at all to raise their young.

Eggs are made in huge breeding factories. Mother hens never see their offspring; they are not allowed to breed by themselves and see their young hatchlings.

When in their natural habitat, mother hens empathize with their chicks, keep them warm, are constantly on the lookout for threats, and enjoy dust baths together. New chicks tend to climb all over her, sitting on her back, picking on their siblings to establish a pecking order, and climbing underneath her to take a nap. Hens have earned their title of being protective, loving mothers since the age of time, commonly mentioned in books, movies, and texts as a great example of a caring mother in the animal kingdom.

A female pig is called a gilt, but if she has piglets then she is known as a sow.

Sows have a strong bond with their piglets, but in factory farms mother pigs are caged in gestation crates the size of a fridge, where they are unable to turn around to nuzzle or even see their babies, and are prevented from forming meaningful and mutually beneficial interactions with their young.

They experience intense stress and depression, which is no life for a pig who would in their natural environment enjoy running, exploring, and keeping close to their offspring and other pigs.

There is enough scientific research to confirm the intelligence of pigs, which is commonly compared to being higher than toddlers! Keeping these animals on factory farms, where they don’t get to feel grass, see the sky, wallow in the mud, or grunt to their little ones, is heartbreaking.