Joaquin Phoenix, winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Actor, helped rescue a mother cow and her newborn calf shortly after dedicating his acceptance speech to the suffering animals endure in the agricultural industry.

“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow,” Phoenix emotionally said during his speech, “and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable.”

In a moving display of compassion, the actor worked with Los Angeles Animal Save the following day to liberate a cow, Liberty, and her calf, Indigo, from a Los Angeles slaughterhouse. The team relocated the mother-daughter pair to the nearby Farm Sanctuary, where they will remain together safe from torture.

This video, which shows the delicate negotiations between Phoenix and the slaughterhouse’s owner, who peacefully agreed to release the duo to the rescuers, also features Liberty and Indigo’s journey to freedom as well as their very first moments at the sanctuary.