One can make the argument that shooting a deformed calf is a humane way of putting it down. Even braining it with a club is more humane.
Tying a cinderblock around its neck, throwing it in the water and watching it thrash around for a long period of time isn’t a humane thing to do. It is downright stupid.
It doesn’t have anything to do with “animal rights” and giving animals “the same rights as humans”. It has to do with cruelty.
Utter nonsense, and I know you are smarter than that. Is it felony cruelty when I pull a weed, catch a mouse in a trap, smash a fly, burn out a nest of bees? Not in the eyes of the law, because those critters don't have rights, but because "pets" and "livestock" now have the right to be treated "humanely" they are protected under the law, and it is possible to commit crimes against their legal person-hood like "felony cruelty". Once you define that right we all know how the damned song ends, we've seen it with every other infraction on our liberties by progressives. They start with a "common sense" law, then use the legal precedent to accomplish their agenda.