Greetings fellow travellers,

Here I share a few thoughts on the dairy industry and why I choose not to support the mistreatment of animals inherent within.

“I don’t get what’s wrong with milk and dairy products,” the Pole Dance said to me, “I mean, I understand why you don’t want to [...]]]>

Dairy cows: a free range animal?

Greetings fellow travellers,

Here I share a few thoughts on the dairy industry and why I choose not to support the mistreatment of animals inherent within.

“I don’t get what’s wrong with milk and dairy products,” the Pole Dance said to me, “I mean, I understand why you don’t want to eat meat, but why don’t you eat dairy products?”

I have what I call “potted answers”. So here is the potted answer I gave to the Pole Dancer.

“Well, to produce milk, the cows have to be made pregnant. And then the calves are taken away and either killed outright, or raised for veal, or raised as dairy cows themselves.”

“Why do the cows have to be made pregnant?”

“Well, you know how mums produce milk to breastfeed their babies, but you and I haven’t had a baby lately so we don’t have milk in our breasts? It’s the same for cows.”

Now don’t go thinking that Pole Dancer is stupid, because she isn’t at all. It says more about how detached we are from how our food is actually produced than about her intellect. You’d be surprised how many people don’t realise how animal products come into being.

So, to produce milk, and continue doing so, cows are artificially inseminated, usually once a year. After giving birth, the calves are usually removed from their mothers within a few days (after the mother cow has stopped producing colostrum and is producing “real” milk). Male calves are of no use to the dairy industry for obvious reasons and are either killed straight away, or condemned to be raised as veal (live exports to Europe resumed in 2006, as the British have little taste for veal).

It is ironic how many Brits turn their noses up at veal for being inhumane, but never make the connection between the glass of milk and the unwanted by-product being shipped over the channel to spend its short life in a veal pen. If you won’t eat veal for ethical reasons, have a think about whether you really want to continue consuming dairy products.

The dairy cow also works damned hard to supply all that milk:

Professor John Webster, in The Welfare of Dairy Cattle, states, “The amount of work done by the cow in peak lactation is immense…To achieve a comparably high work rate a human would have to jog for about 6 hours a day, every day.”

This work also brings about occupational hazards for the cows, such as mastitis, an udder infection. Humans females can also get mastitis when breastfeeding, and any mother who has been unfortunate to develop the condition will tell you that it is no fun at all. So although cows cannot speak to tell us how much it hurts, I can’t imagine that it would be any different for them.

Naturally, cattle have a lifespan of 15-20 years, but in agriculture, few will see their fifth birthday as they are replaced with more productive youngsters and find their way to the slaugherhouse. A significant minority of the doomed cows are actually pregnant on their way to their final destination.

In conclusion, I gave up consuming dairy when I realised that animals are killed as a both a direct and indirect result of the the dairy industry. Whether they are shot at birth for being male, or made into hamburgers once their best milking years are over, they all end up in the same ugly place.

For more information on why vegans choose to avoid dairy products, please see the Vegan Society factsheet or Viva’s Milk Myths.

~ Quirky Vegan