COWS NOT MILK MACHINES

Did you know cows don't automatically produce milk?

 Like all mammals, cows only lactate after giving birth.

 For farmers to get high milk production ( and more money) dairy cows are impregnated each year. The resultant newborn calves are taken from their grieving mothers and usually killed 

It's believed that over 1,000,000 unwanted newborn dairy calves are slaughtered each year.

Those allowed to live are not even allowed to drink their mothers' milk.

 It’s not surprising then that soy milks, oat milks, rice milks and other dairy alternatives are gaining popularity among consumers who care about what goes on.

To maintain high milk production, a dairy cow must produce calves. If a cow turns out to be a substandard producer of milk, she goes to market and can be killed for beef. Dairy farmers usually begin breeding or artificially inseminating heifers around 13 months of age. A cow's gestation period is approximately nine months.

Newborn calves are removed from their mothers quickly, usually within a day  of birth because the mother/calf bond intensifies over time and delayed separation can cause extreme stress on the calf.

Domestic cows can live to 20 years, however those raised for dairy rarely live that long, as the average cow is removed from the dairy herd around age four and marketed for beef.

In India, the Hindu majority holds the cow as sacred and a motherly figure due to her capacity to give milk. Cow slaughter is banned in parts of India and remains a contentious issue in states where it is legal. Spent dairy cows don't go to slaughter.

But elsewhere what you basically have is a gentle diary cow who could live for 20 years is kept continually pregnant, has her babes taken away from her and killed, is continually pumped dry of milk and is allowed to live for only four years after which she is slaughtered for beef by being beaten to death or having her throat cut while still alive.


The longer I live the less I believe that animal farming is a respectable business and after seeing the horror of how animals are slaughtered there's no way I'll ever eat meat again.