Cruelty in Dairy Products

You might be thinking, what is so cruel about consuming dairy products? I mean, the cow doesn’t die; cows need to be milked!

It kills me how naive some people can sometimes be, but I’m here to inform all of you that the dairy industry is just as cruel as the meat industry. In a nutshell, the veal industry is a direct result of the dairy industry, dairy cows are sent to slaughter along with the other cows and dairy cows are forced to endure truly deplorable conditions throughout their unnaturally short lives. It is my aim with this post to show you all just how intelligent cows are and how the dairy industry cruelly uses these cows then discards them when they have surpassed their usefulness.

How they live

The California Meat Advisory Board (CMAB) would like us all to believe that their cows are happy. Their current campaign claims “Happy cows come from California,” and show (animated) cows having fun, frolicking in green pastures, flirting, playing football, etc. What the CMAB does not mention, is that these are not the conditions that the majority of California’s cows are kept in.

Most of California’s cows, if not kept in factory farms, are kept in what are called ‘dry-lots,’ which are essentially tracts of fenced-in land that has been tramped into a combination of mud and excrement. The cows must stand in this filth (oftentimes their udders are dragged through it) for almost their entire lives, crammed in with several thousand other cows. They are typically out in the open air, so they are not protected from the elements (including severe weather conditions) and they do not have bedding or proper (sanitary) places to rest.

This type of environment is a breeding ground for infection and disease. As I mentioned in Dairy Dilemma: Health, dairy cows (in the US) are given Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) in order to increase their milk production. Because of this, their udders become painfully inflamed and infected, a disease called mastitis (roughly 30-50% of dairy cows suffer from this, according to the industries own figures). The mud/feces soup they must walk around in only makes these infections worse. To combat this, they are given high doses of antibiotics (which have the potential to end up in their milk and meat).

Dairy cows also frequently suffer from Lamintitis (foot/hoof rot), Johne’s Disease, Milk Fever, Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus and Bovine Leukemia Virus. Johne’s Disease, according to Wikipedia, “is a contagious, chronic and sometimes fatal infection that affects primarily the small intestine of ruminants” caused by “a bacterium named Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.” Milk Fever, also according to Wikipedia, is “characterized by reduced blood calcium levels” which “interfere with muscle function throughout the body, causing general weakness, inappetance, and eventually heart failure.”

In order to produce milk at all, dairy cows must be pregnant. They are artificially inseminated every year so they can deliver a calf every nine months. Thy produce milk for seven out of nine months (their gestation period). Again, to amp up this production, they are given BGH, which causes them to produce as much as three times as much milk as they would normally produce. This is extremely taxing, and often results in some of the diseases mentioned above, but mainly calcium depletion in general. Because these cows are forced to stand almost constantly, are almost constantly pregnant and are milked several times a day, they eventually become lame from the strain.

These are the cows that are frequently described as downer cows when they reach slaughterhouses. After living only 4-6 years, when their average life expectancy in the wild is 25 years, dairy cows are taken to the slaughterhouse. And because of the quality of life, their meat is relegated to soup, companion animal food, even food for cattle and other factory farmed animals. (We’ve all heard by now of the massive recall of beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co in California as a result of an investigation by the Humane Society of the US that revealed downer cows being treated cruelly and making it into the meat supply).

Veal: “Byproduct” of Dairy Industry

As I mentioned, dairy cows are impregnated on a yearly basis in order to produce milk. Veal cows are merely the male calves born from dairy cows (and the females are fated to become dairy cows). We all know that eating veal is bad because of the cruel conditions these baby cows are forced to endure. But what exactly are these cruel conditions?

From birth, calf and mother are forcibly separated, typically within a day of being born (I’ll get into the effects this has on the mother momentarily). They are then sold at auction as veal calves, and are taken to their new homes, small crates in a dark (unlit) factory farm. They are chained by the neck so that they are unable to stand (and use their leg muscles), and are generally kept from moving at all. They are fed an iron-deficient diet, usually liquid, with little nutritive value. All of this is done in an attempt to keep their flesh tender and white, which is evidently what people prefer (how they ever discovered this, I don’t want to know). Needless to say, veal calves suffer from anemia, diarrhea and pneumonia. They are slaughtered after roughly 16 weeks of “living.”

Cows have feelings, too

Mother cows are just like any other mother mammal. They form a bond with their child/young while they are in the womb and will stop at nothing to keep their child protected. To be forcibly separated from your own child is an intense emotional ordeal for any mammal, and the cow is no exception. There are countless cases of cows grieving the loss of their calf; they will frantically wail and search for their calf long after they are gone, have been known to cry over their loss and some have even escaped to find their baby.

The author, Oliver Sacks, MD once visited a dairy farm with a cattle expert Dr Temple Grandlin. Upon their arrival, they heard several of the cows bellowing, to which Grandlin responded: “They must have separated the calves from the cows this morning…It’s like grieving, mourning–not much written about it. People don’t like to allow them thoughts or feelings [my emphasis]” (The Hidden Lives of Cows).

Not only can cows grieve, but they are also very intelligent animals. They can have distinct personalities, interact in socially complex ways, enjoy intellectual challenges and have good memories.

Cows have been shown to feel excitement at solving intellectual challenges, such as in an experiment/investigation by Donald Broom, a professor of animal welfare at Cambridge University. The cows were challenged to learn how to open a door for a food reward. Their brainwaves were measured using an electroencephalograph, showing their excitement upon accomplishing the task. Their heart rates went up and some of the cows actually jumped into the air when they figured it out.

This and other experiments show that cows understand cause and effect relationships, including staying away from things that they learned cause them pain. This can include an abusive owner, an electric fence or even just another cow they don’t like. The intelligence of cows is ranked pretty high–higher than a cats, and comparable to a dogs. This recognition ability also extends to spatial recognition, as cows frequently return to particular locations while grazing, indication a good spot to eat.

Cows also demonstrate a high level of social hierarchy. They can easily recognize up to 100 herd-mates, and they even choose their own leaders based on things like intelligence and good social skills, while traits like bullying and selfishness are not considered good for a leader (and interestingly enough, neither are strength or size).

Just like humans, cows form cliques, and (not like humans) they like to groom and lick one another. The amount of time they spend licking/grooming indicates the level of the relationship, as well. Social hierarchy even determines the order in which the cows can lie down for a nap.

So now what?

As you can clearly see by this point, a cow’s natural social inclinations are severly hampered (if not negated) by their forcible confinement on ‘dry lots.’ This way of living in such close contact with thousands of other cows upsets their hierarchy, causing extreme distress because the cows are unable to find their niche.

Compare this to how any human would feel if kept in similar conditions and it is easy to see how this is cruel treatment. Cows are individuals, capable of complex emotions, and are even able to express a wide range of these emotions (through posture and vocal sounds), and can have their own individual personalities. If this sounds familiar, it should, because this cats or dogs are also described in these terms. You wouldn’t subject Fido to these conditions, so why should cows be treated so much differently?

Just somethin to chew on.

P.S. In case you were wondering how CMAB could get away with such blatant false advertising, allow me to share this little tidbit with you: government agencies are exempt from false advertising. And since CMAB is a government agency, they aren’t accountable to anyone (except maybe the ones who are paying them (off)).

Referenced:

“Dairy Industry Report” http://www.insidedairyproduction.com/wst_page2.html

“Happy Cows? You Decide” http://www.unhappycows.com/

“The Hidden Lives of Cows” http://www.goveg.com/f-hiddenlivescows.asp

“The Real Life of Dairy Cows” http://www.unhappycows.com/dairycows.asp