Milk : Is drinking milk a crualty?

Question

My husand suddenly stopped drinking milk or eating any product made of milk. He thinks that cow gives milk for her calf and we human take away that milk that belogs to calf and use it for human consumption. In India, the moment cow starts giving milk, the calfs are deprived of cow's milk. I heard that this happens in India, but in USA, the cow is given extra hormons to produce more than enough milk and the calfs are not deprived. How can I find out more information if it is true for USA or in USA also they do same as India.

Answer 1

I live out in the country and let me tell you that your husband is somewhat correct (I live in an area with alot of dairy farmers) Let me tell you what I personaly see...

Calves are taken away from their mothers at 2 days old, just long enough so they get the first milk (colostrum). Most of the bull calves are castraited and put in a tiny space that they can hardly turn around in, they feed the calve milk replacer or if they are lucky maybe some fresh cows milk. When these calves are old enough to start eating they are fed high fat/high protien food but are still fed milk replacer for a few months. Now you may wonder why they are kepped like this? well they want to keep the calves with tender unexercised muscles. I feel sick for these poor babies )= Some farmers sell the male and some weak and sick female calves at the auction, I see these poor newborn calves being pushed and shoved in large numbers from the stock trailers in to the pens. Their umbilical stubs are still wet and pink, they often fall over and have to be dragged into the sale pen cause they are only like 2 days old!

Some of the healthy and large female calves are kepped for milk production later on, so are fed up and penned up in small holding pens. The lucky ones get to graze in a pasture.

Now lets talk about the Adult cows....

Most dairy farms I see keep the milking cows in small crouded holding pens, and bring them in the barn to be milked 2 times a day, some farmers dock the cows tails to stop them from being bitten and chewed up from these stressed out animals. These hormon pumped cows that have been bred to have unaturaly huge udders often have udders so big that it nearly touchesthe ground, some of them have sores from the milk machines. Most of them are thin, weak, and tired from all the stress of making 4 times the milk they should be making, most of them only can handy this stress for 6 years before they are too weak to do it anymore, some die, but most get sold to stockyards or slaughter houses. Cows should be able to live 15 to 20 years! In the worst cases the milking cows are kepped by the hundreds in huge dairy barns in milking stalls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have automatic watering bowls and lots of food so they can keep making more and more milk, they cannot turn around and have to lay on the cement floor that is often covered in manure, they get many sores and swolen joints from lack or soft ground to lay on and lack of exercise. (You would have to see it to believe it...) When the cows are too weak to take it anymore, they are sold at auctions or slaughter houses.

Very very few dairy farmers alow dairy cows to live a natural life out in a field.

These are the cold hard facts of dairy farming, that I have seen with my own eyes.... Its all about money money money and little to no consideration for the animals that we share mother earth with. It makes me ashamed of mankind, we can be better than this!

I realize a took a long time typing out this information but I think its important for people to know the truth. There are good dairy farmer out there still, they can be found and should be suported.

Here are a few video clips of the typical dairy farm and the truths they don't want you to know about.

Answer 2

Dairy does not HAVE to be cruel... but unfortunately, it generally IS. It's not the milk that makes it cruel... but how they get it. Typically, cows are impregnated and allowed to deliver. The calf however is then taken and crammed into a 22" crate where he will stay until he's something like 4 months old. During this time he only gets milk because if they actually fed him food or allowed him a box big enough to stand up in, he'd develop muscle and lose tenderness. This is the veal industry.

So drinking milk doesn't deprive the baby cow of milk... but it often sentences them to become veal cows... who basically live in torture until they are butchered alive (to keep the bright color of blood in the meat).

Now if you were to make sure your milk was coming from a local dairy or something where the cows are allowed to nurse their young and the calves are not used in the veal industry, I think a lot of the cruelty associated with it would be avoided.

I haven't checked it out lately, but I think the PETA website has a lot of info about the dairy/veal industry. It's PETA... so take it for what you will... they tend to be extreme and overbearing... but their research is at least based in fact.

Answer 3

"This hormone [given to cattle to increase milk output] is called 'bovine somatotropin' or BST. It is banned in the UK and Europe but has been licensed in the US since 1995. BST is given to cows to increase their milk yield. The European Union ban was made permanent on January 1st 2000. BST was banned on animal welfare grounds and not because there is any proven effect on human health." (Cancerhelp)

Female hormones make men less mascular. It changes something in your body's system. It is not very sure how bad this is. Some scientist think it could be a cause for (breast)cancer.

Don't worry about your husband. There is no need to drink milk. You get a more than needed proportion of calcium, when eating other products like bread, butter, etc. Studies found out that Japanese men have less broken bones than American men have, although, in Japan they do not drink milk!

Even so, consider that you are drinking baby milk of a cow. There is no reason to drink it. Not even since a grown up calf stops drinking it.

Milk is a product that the stomach can not break off very easily. So it takes quite some energy to manage the milk. Some people are even alergic to milk. Most of them get very tired when they drunk it.

Anyway, when your husband thinks that giving hormones to cows is not good for animal welfare, then the UK and Europe are at his side.

Answer 4

When a cow has a calf, she gets to keep it for about 2 weeks. After two weeks the calf is raised by 4H kids or FFA kids or the farmer for veal if it's male, or raised as a replacement heifer if it's female. The cow continues to produce milk for human consumption, cheese making, etc. Cows are on a rigid schedule. They know to come in for milking because they are uncomfortable after a certain amount of hours. Cows produce milk for a set amount of time then they are re-bred, taken off the production line until they calve again and the cycle starts all over.

Answer 5

Cows give milk to their calves, not for human consumption. At farms they are regularly impregnated to keep the milk supply going. They are fed too much so they produce more meat, which causes them to have too much weight for their own body. Their legs can't support their weight. They break, and the cows can't walk anymore. When their calfs are born they are horribly mistreated and abused, just like their mother, then sent to slaughter houses. 90% of the beef we eat comes from dairy cows unable to produce anymore meat. They are skinned and their throats are slit while they are still concious at slaughter houses. All in all, yes it's a cruelty. Think about it.

Answer 6

Cows, like all mammals, will keep producing milk as long as it's still being sucked out. (that's why there are humans nursing three year olds when the ones who stopped at nine months aren't producing any more.)

A dairy cow only has to have one calf to keep producing for years, so by the time the milk gets to you, the calf has long since stopped nursing, and may in fact be producing her own milk alongside her mother.

Now, the hormones may be a concern for some people, as may be the automated milking equipment. If that bothers him, switch to organic milk. But, really, the cows don't seem to mind much.

Answer 7

Most milk cows are not breed anyways, and there is enough milk for the calves too, even if it's mother is a dairy cow. About hormones they probably do add them. For more info google it.

Answer 8

No because a milk cow is not breading at the moment so there is no calf to be deprived

Answer 9

People tried drinking bat milk. It was hard milking in a bat cave, dark and all that. Then they tried dolphins... Cows were domesticated and it was easier getting that cream in a bottle.

Answer 10

WTF...Your nuts...Milking cows do not have calves at their sides. They produce milk for our consumption and yes, they are given hormons to increase production. If they are not milked it is very painful to them and also dangerous to their health. By stopping the consumption of milk your are hurting dairy farmers in the wallet and those cows with low consumption will be slaughtered if milk consumption drops low.