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hat's behind a glass of milk or a piece of cheese? We are used to seeing them in stores, commercials, tv shows and movies, and probably don’t think too much about it. Most of us grew up with the image of happy cows grazing peacefully on the meadows with a bell around their necks, and the farmer milks them to their delight. And we want to believe it's like that. Is this really how things are and what does it actually take for the dairy products to reach the store shelves and make it into our home? In this article we will mention the standard practices for dairy cows. But before that let's first get to know cows a little bit.
They are emotional, intelligent, and social beings. They make friends within the herd, and like some cows more than others, just like humans. They become anxious and depressed when they are separated from their family members and loved ones.
It’s not rare to see a cow making friends with other species, such as cats, dogs, pigs, and humans. Even though cows are much bigger than most of them, they don’t seem to mind at all and always find a way to show love and affection by cuddling and giving them big cow kisses.
These grass puppies experience a wide array of emotions. When happy and content, they make noises like loud grunting/purring, and in moments of stress, anxiety or fear they cry, just like us.
Even though it’s not a well known fact, cows have great memories and remember everything that happens to them. They are also very picky in choosing a mating partner.
Cows create strong bonds with their babies and are very nurturing and caring. They are a true symbol of motherhood. In nature, calves spend at least 18 months with their mother, or even their whole life, if they can. They mature slowly, like all herbivores (it takes for us humans up to 25 years to fully develop). When given the right conditions, they can live up to 20 - 30 years, which is their natural life span.
When it comes to the life of a cow in the dairy industry, green meadows and enjoying peaceful happy moments couldn't be further from the truth.
In about 95% of the cases around the world cows are kept in enclosed semi-dark spaces, they stand on concrete flooring all day, never see the grass or the sun, and are often chained and unable to move freely. It's not as idyllic as they show us, isn’t it?
In order for a cow to produce breast milk, she must first become pregnant, just like any other animal. Today, this is mostly done through artificial insemination or as a cow would see it,
rape. These are intelligent animals that are aware of everything that happens to them and the mentioned procedure is done by force. Bleeding often occurs when objects are being pushed into their internal parts. It causes great stress and cows are trying to protect themselves and escape. This is why farmers invented something called ‘the rape rack’ (that’s the official industry name) a narrow, chute-like device where a cow is constricted so that a farmer or veterinarian can do to her what ever they want. It’s pretty malicious and sadistic, when we think about it.
Cows carry their calf for 9 months, just like humans. At the moment of birth the mother cow produces high levels of oxytocin, a so-called love hormone which makes her strongly bond with her baby and falls in love with her/him. This is something that naturally occurs with all mammals, including us humans.
But moments after birth the calf is taken from the mother and put in a separate area. This is a common practice that is being done on small and large farms, organic and conventional. It is extremely traumatic for both mother and a baby. Mother feels great emotional pain, bellows and cries for days and weeks expressing her sorrow and trying to call her baby. One of the reasons why a calf is not allowed to stay with her and suck is because it ‘distorts’ her teats, so the milking machine couldn’t be well attached after that. As the farmers would say, they are ruined (for making them money).
Calves are put in a separate area, usually a cage the size of a meter by meter or small enclosure, as is instructed by the dairy regulations. They are confused, scared and desperately trying to suck on farmers fingers or anything that would resemble their mothers teats. Instead of getting milk which is specifically designed by nature to meet their needs, calves are fed man made substitute formula. They are all alone without a mother to help them, comfort them and show them around this scary new world they found themselves in with no fault of their own. Millions of little orphans around the world experience the same cruel faith.
The dairy industry doesn't only know this is happening, it’s all perfectly legal and a part of the established practices with the goal of maximizing profit.
Mothers milk that she produces for her baby is being taken - milked by painful machines several times a day and sold for profit. Milk is basically stolen baby food.
Baby boys are of no use to the dairy industry and are being killed for meat, sometimes immediately after birth. Even though it's hard, almost impossible for us to imagine, their short life ends in ways that are declared as humane killing. Common methods are hitting them with a hammer on the head, shooting them with a gun, hitting their head on a concrete floor, or cutting their throat with a knife.
These practices are listed as ‘standard part of the dairy farming’, moreover, a PDF with instructions on how to hammer them can be downloaded for free on the web. We are talking about newborns or a couple of weeks old babies.
If farmers don’t kill babies themselves, which is cheaper, they send them to the slaughterhouse. Legislation allows for the ‘farmed’ animals to travel up to 30 hours on transport trucks with no food or water. This is extremely exhausting for the adults, let alone babies who require constant care and frequent feeding.
Many can’t even walk yet, so they stumble and fall on the kill floor while slaughterhouse workers take their lives with no mercy or compassion.
When we as humans see a baby animal like a kitten, a puppy, or a baby of other species, we start producing oxytocin. It makes us feel all cuddly and warm inside, and our first natural instinct is to take care of them and protect them. How dissociated slaughterhouse workers and dairy farmers have to be to have no problem harming these gentle calves.
Hundreds of thousands of calves, an unwanted ‘by-product’ of the dairy industry, are slaughtered within a few days of birth. During only one month in 2022, the U.S. slaughtered 2.81 million animals for beef and 28,100 calves for veal.
Less often, calves are left for a couple of months and then killed for veal. ‘Excess’ female babies are treated the same way.
I don't believe anyone ever signed up for a glass of milk with a dead baby on the side, but this is what we (unknowingly) support when we buy dairy products. It's no wonder that the industries keep their practices a secret. They know that humans are essentially compassionate and loving, and would never support such things. It's not only their dirty secret, it's also a very sad one.
Girls that are kept are being exploited in the same way as their mothers. After experiencing traumatizing separation, they spend much of their lives in extreme confinement. In fact, most are kept the first 2 to 3 months of life in lonely barren hutches or tiny pens and fed milk substitutes, with no gentle touch and comfort from their mothers. They often suffer from pneumonia, lameness, and diarrhea.
Some farms use force feeding where workers insert feeding tubes down the little calves throats and milk often ends up in their lungs.
Over 90% of U.S. dairy cows are confined in primarily indoor operations, with more than 60% tied by the neck and kept inside barren stalls, unable to perform even the most basic behaviors essential to their well-being. They are forced to stand and lie down in their own accumulated waste, often having wounds and injuries that are not being treated.
The misery of the little ones that are kept alive doesn't end with that. As they get a bit older they are subjected to a number of other standard practices that we would call a crime in any other situation.
The practices of removing horns are routine procedures on farms around the world. Farmers claim that it makes their business more profitable because it allows more animals in a smaller space. It also takes away the cows ability to protect themselves, which is also the goal.
Disbudding is usually performed on a few weeks old babies. This cruel procedure is mostly done by burning the head with a hot iron where the horns would grow and holding it for about half a minute, then repeated on the other side. Some farms use caustic chemicals instead which burn away sensitive horn tissue. In most cases, anesthesia or analgesics are not used, and the procedure is extremely painful and traumatic because the head area, as well as horn buds are full of hypersensitive nerve endings.
If the horns are being removed later in life, it includes cutting off horns which is also very painful. Animals show clear signs of pain and stress weeks after the procedure.
All cows naturally have horns, so if you ever see one without them, you know what she’s been through.
All animals in the industry are marked with a number, a unique identification, like they do with prisoners in prison. This is done by tagging and/or branding.
Branding is performed by the workers heating iron bars in open fires and burning the flesh of young cows. The procedure is extremely painful and stressful and it takes a couple of weeks for the wound to heal. It can cause third degree burns. These wounds easily get infected and not all animals get proper care.
Tagging has to be done in a precise manner because cows ears are filled with blood vessels and cartilage in specific areas. If the ear is being pierced in the wrong place, it can cause bleeding, infection, and prolonged pain. Due to the large number of animals, workers often rush through the process and make mistakes, which can leave animals in a life long discomfort.
Another common practice is for cows to have their tails removed. They will either be cut off with shears, or in some cases workers will wrap wire or rubber bands around the tail.
This is legal practice in many parts of the world, including the US and UK. Workers run blowtorches under the udders of cows to burn off hairs so the milking machines achieve better suction, and to keep udders free from manure and debris, which can harbor and aid in the transmission of pathogens.This procedure can cause burning of the skin on the udder and teats, and is again stressful for cows.
Cows don’t want to go into the milking parlor, an area where they are milked, especially after just losing their baby and are grieving, so workers use electric prods on them. It produces a painful electric shock that forces these animals into serving humans.
On standard farms cows are usually kept for 4 - 6 years, which means that they go through the process of artificial insemination and the trauma of their baby being stolen from them numerous times. You can imagine what kind of psychological torture it is to be pregnant and know that your baby will be taken away from you. Many cows try everything to hide their newborn calf so that it’s not taken away from them, but this (almost) never succeeds. On some family organic farms mothers are kept and exploited for 10 - 15 years. It’s hard to imagine that these animals spend such a long time slaving for cheese and milk.
When the production of cow's milk drops and the mother is no longer profitable, she is not rewarded for her hard work, but sent for slaughter. Her body is usually turned into poorer quality meat, like ground beef, burgers or pet food.
A less known fact is that female cows are often sent to the slaughterhouse while pregnant. It’s not rare that farmers impregnate cows one last time so they weigh more when they are being killed, which means more profit. Unborn calves are also considered a product - they are used for particularly soft skin and for stem cells by the pharmaceutical industry and for making beauty products.
About 300 million cows are killed annually in the world, and it is estimated that around 20% of them are pregnant at different stages of pregnancy (some claim that the number is much higher and goes up to 40%). That is approximately 50 - 70 million pregnant cows a year. About a third of them are in the last stages of pregnancy and are carrying calves capable of independent living. The fetus is still alive during the slaughter of their mother.
You may think to yourself - ‘how could someone go so far as to kill a pregnant animal’? The short answer is that everything we do to these poor souls is inhumane and cruel. If someone really cared for another living being as farmers often claim, they wouldn’t treat them as they do, from start to finish.
Even in those 3 - 5% of the cases when calves are left with their mothers, artificial insemination and forced pregnancies are still applied, and male calves are not spared, but killed right away or shortly after. Cows are large animals that consume substantial amounts of food and water and it’s not profitable to keep them around as pets if they can’t be used or profited from in some way.
Farmers often use anti-suckling devices such as nose rings or nose flaps on calves to prevent them from drinking their mothers milk.
On smaller farms cows are often exploited for 10 or more years, which prolongs their suffering. They experience disbudding, tagging, go through multiple pregnancies and are milked daily. When they are no longer profitable, they are also sent to the slaughterhouse. In other words, even though animals are treated better, cruel practices are still present and they are all killed in the end.
The bond between mother and child is one of the most sacred things in the world, and the dairy industry violates that. Given the psychological, sexual and physical abuse that animals suffer even before slaughter, it is considered the most cruel industry, even worse than meat. Is a bit of milk for morning coffee or cereal really worth all this suffering, especially when we can use plant milks that are much healthier for us?
In addition to being cruel to animals and having a bad impact on our health the dairy industry has a strong negative impact on the environment.
Methane and nitric oxide are powerful greenhouse gasses, far stronger than carbon dioxide. The animal industry is responsible for 65% of all emissions of nitric oxide, which is 296 times more harmful than carbon dioxide and remains in the atmosphere for 150 years. The dairy industry is no exception, cows are large animals and produce these gasses in large quantities.
Did you know that cows drink 40-66 gallons of water a day and eat about 100 pounds of food? That's quite a lot.
They are quite poop makers too. They release about 100 pounds of feces containing nitric oxide and methane.
The dairy industry also uses water to clean machinery, equipment, maintenance, and for many other activities.
If you want to contribute to environmental protection, switching to plant-based dairy products is a great solution and more effective than, for example, using a bicycle instead of a car, or taking a shorter shower.
The good news is that we have all the power to stop the cruelty and exploitation. By choosing plant based milks, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc, we are shifting the demand. Plus, we are doing something positive for our health and the environment.
Dairy farms are already on decline despite big subsidies from the government. Only in November of last year 50 dairy farms in Minnesota closed for good. Let’s be a part of the positive change together and help end cruel practices once and for all!
The good news is that we have all the power to stop the cruelty and exploitation. By choosing plant based milks, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc, we are shifting the demand. Plus, we are doing something positive for our health and the environment. Dairy farms are already on decline despite big subsidies from the government. Only in November of last year 50 dairy farms in Minnesota closed for good. Let’s be a part of the positive change together and help end cruel practices once and for all!