Is milk cruel and is drinking milk unnatural?

Question

I recently found out that milking cows are kept in tiny little pens and their udders are huge and painful (sorry - that sounds rude) and their legs often buckle. Also, they are constantly pregnant as it's the only way for them to produce milk and their babies are taken away from them really quickly.

Also, apparently it's not natural for humans to drinks cows milk, as it's meant for calfs. Humans were only supposed to ever drink human milk, as babies obviously!

Why do they make it taste so good then??

It all sounds pretty cruel. What do you think?

Answer 1

This is a valid point. Not many people take into consideration that the calves are slaughtered so that we may have the milk. When cows were kept by families and they milked them along side the calf it wasn't such a big deal and this is the image most people have of where milk comes from. Mass farming, however, has gone way beyond this point and you wouldn't believe the methods employed to produce many meat and animal products these days.
I am not sure how un-natural it is to drink milk from another animal but don't you think it's weird that most adults would be horrified at the thought of drinking human milk!

Answer 2

What a load of B***s, cows for milking are kept in fields, and brought in twice a day to be milkied BEFORE their udders get too ful. They ahve a claf, and yse the calf is taken away soon after, but is fed on their milk, but cows produce a huge amount of milk, far more than a calf could drink, so most of it is taken to the dairy and sold. The cow can give milk for many months without having to get pregnant again. In fact if a human was to continue to breast feed she would produce milk for as long as the baby/child continued to suckle. There was a programme on TV recently which showed women who ahd continued to breatfeed their children up to the age of 7. The cows produce milk in response to the milk being removed from their udders. It is certainly NOT a cruel thing. and they are never kept in pens, just put into them for a short while each day to be milked, and then let out again, and their legs don't buckle from the weight. Don't know where you got that from, probably some weird animal activist site.

Answer 3

Not all cows are kept in pens, most are allowed to roam the fields and are led back in only for milking twice a day.

It is true that there udders are unnaturally over sized and it must be rather uncomfortable for them, but I doubt they would know any different as they're not the cleverest of animals.

Milk is perfectly good to drink unless you are lactose intolerant. Apparenty white people are better adapted to drinking milk than asian or black people.

Answer 4

It is a form of nourishment and people have been drinking milk for centuries. Dont think it is cruel if the cows are only kept in the pens for a short period i.e. while they are being milked.

Answer 5

Why drink cow's milk?
It's a good source of calcium.
WRONG!
Cow's milk has a phosphorus to calcium ratio of 2:1. Phosphorus is an absorption competitor of calcium, so when consumed at the same time and in this ratio, which one do you think will dominate?

Also, cow's milk is high in protein. Consuming too much protein creates acidic blood, which forces the body, in it's infinite wisdom, to donate calcium from the bone matrix to the blood as a buffer so that tissue doesn't get damaged. Over time this leads to low bone density as the bone matrix becomes porous, also known as osteoporosis.

In order to absorb calcium, the body needs comparable amounts of another mineral element, magnesium. Milk and dairy products contain only small amounts of magnesium. Without the presence of magnesium, the body only absorbs 25 percent of the available dairy calcium content. The remainder of the calcium spells trouble. Without magnesium, excess calcium is utilized by the body in injurious ways. The body uses calcium to build the mortar on arterial walls which becomes atherosclerotic plaques. Excess calcium is converted by the kidneys into painful stones which grow in size like pearls in oysters, blocking our urinary tracts. Excess calcium contributes to arthritis; painful calcium buildup often is manifested as gout.

Now let's think of the dairy industry. We all know that huge corporations don't care about the end consumer. So aside from the horrifying cruelty that dairy cows endure, dairy farmers inject the cows with growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics. This is to ensure that the cows produce an unnatural amount of milk, and to "prevent" them from catching the diseases that run rampant throughout the factory. We know that most substances pass through breast milk, and the same is true here. When we drink our cow cappucino or eat bovine butter, we are consuming concentrated sources of antibiotics, pesticides (that the cows ate), growth hormones (that accelerates cell growth, including tumours), as well as pus, feces, blood, and urine that contaminates every serving.

"Vitamin" D3 which is added to milk to help calcium absorption (which doesn't occur anyway), is also known as calciferol. Calciferol is also what is used to kill rats and mice.

Casein, the protein that is found only in milk/dairy is also used as an industrial glue. And EVERY human is allergic to it... histamine is released by white blood cells when casein is eaten, and because it is so sticky, it cements our intestines to block the absorption of real nutrients.

Cow's milk by law has to be pasteurized. This means heating the milk to high temperatures to destroy some unwanted organisms. This process also destroys the natural enzymes present in raw milk that assist in it's digestion (although meant for the calf). Human beings do not produce the enzymes necessary to fully break down another species breast milk... aside from lactase which is produced by our intestinal reserves of acidophilus (found in dairy).

Got Milk? I know I don't...
Tabitha.

Answer 6

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/people/health/dairyproducts.php

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/animals/exploitation/cows/dairy_cow.php

these are just two of many resources you can find online re the milk industry and the neglect and pain caused to cows

there are many good alternatives now to dairy produce which you can buy easily in any high street supermarket, health food store, local markets and some little local shops

hope this helps

Answer 7

Milking cows cruel!!!!!!!! seriously thats the least of your worries!!! it is cruel yes but what end of the food chain do you want to be on?

Answer 8

All the cows i know, and i know plenty, are free to graze and are milked twice a day. They would be in pain if they weren't milked....
So enjoy.

Answer 9

That's craaaaazy

Answer 10

that's called food chain, dear...