This Vegetarian Beef Farmer Gave His Entire Herd To An Animal Sanctuary

Mr. Wilde's father was a cattle farmer, and he was raised herding (and slaughtering) cattle.

When he became a vegetarian 25 years ago, he didn't know how attached he would become to the animals he was raising for slaughter.

Mr. Wilde switched to organic beef production after the death of his father in 2011. But he could never shake the feeling that what he was doing was wrong.

Dairy farming is particularly hard, he says, because cows and their calves become distressed when they're inevitably separated.

Of the 63 cattle Mr. Wilde donated, half of them were pregnant.

The founder of the sanctuary said the animals would live out their lives as treasured pets.

The cattle that Wilde gave away were worth approximately 40,000 pounds.

Wilde doesn't care about the lost profit, however.

Instead, he plans to open a vegan organic market farm that doesn't use animal fertilizers or animal-derived products.