Michael Sauers
March 19, 2025
I have recently posted on the egg and the foie gras industries. In a continuing effort to educate consumers about the cruelties of factory farming I will add this post on dairy cows.
We are long past the days when we can say, “Oh, I didn’t know”. We now know and it is time to care.
A dairy cow could live 20-25 years. In factory farm milking systems they are slaughtered at about 5 or 6 years. This is when a female cow’s milk production falls off. They are no longer commercially viable and so they are sent to slaughter.
When they can no longer provide milk, cheese, and yogurt they are of no use to the food industry except as meat. We see them being transported in trucks. They move onto the killing floor where they are stunned, hoisted up and have their throats slit. In record speed they are chopped up and become low grade meat used in ground beef. It is beyond cruel. It is beyond savage. It is a cold hearted act done simply for profit.
Before arriving at the killing floor these cows endure numerous tortures; dehorning, tail-docking, mastitis, lameness and artificial insemination. To make milk and therefore money cows must keep birthing. When the calf is a male it is immediately removed from its mother and shortly thereafter slaughtered. This is the VEAL that meat eaters enjoy so much. It is the flesh of a young cow. Female calves are raised to be milkers and suffer the same fate as their mothers.
MOO milk is based on cruelty. There are no happy cows at a factory farm. My generation (boomers), schooled by preceding generations, has fought to curb “isms”. Racism, sexism, ageism, classism, and ableism are a few. Somehow, in a tunnel of arrogance and superiority, we have not been able to address SPECIESISM. SPECIESISM flies under the radar and allows untold horrors to be committed against non-humans.
Becoming a vegan is a good start for addressing the above inhumanity. Don’t hunt, fish or trap. Don’t support activities that subject other creatures to unnatural behaviors or otherwise torture and bring about their demise. You’re not stupid.