are dairy cattle treated humanely?

Question

phoenix i asked a sensible question. i expect sensible replies. michael , perhaps you should go away and find some war questions to answer.

Answer 1

Cow's are milked because cows are made pregnant every year all their lives and have their calves taken off them from as early as 1 day old so that we can have their milk. The male calves are then taken off to a veal farm and suffer for 6 months before being slaughtered and put on our plates renamed 'a delicacy'. Cow's get mastitis which is an extremely painful inflammation of breast tissue, of which if human females get mastitis they can't physically breastfeed because it is so painful. Cows have no choice...
Cows may live a 'happy' life in the field but it is extremely distressing for their calves to be taken away from them, for the Mother and the baby.
Cows milk is not essential for a human being. By making this statement there is a suggestion that we couldn't survive without it which isn't true.
If you are to drink milk and other dairy derived produce, try your best to buy organic milk and cheese and locally produced too. This means that the calf has been allowed to stay with it's Mother for approx 3 months. "Tethering calves or the sale of calves under one month old to livestock markets is banned, as is live export of calves under Soil Association standards" is quoted in the soil association website. I hope I have managed to help...

Answer 2

Simple 1 word answer-NO.

They are kept pregnant and forced to give birth every year so that they will produce milk constantly.Their calves are taken away at a few days old which causes immense distress to both the calf and cow.Under natural conditions the cow would only give birth once every 2 years and the calf would stay with it's mother for the best part of 2 years.

Some of the female calves are reared away from their mothers and later join the dairy herd but many females and virtually all males are either sent in veal crates to France or else simply killed.They are not reared for meat as the dairy breeds never get as stocky as the beef breeds.

The cows themselves could naturally live well into their teens or even past 20 but most are killed at 6 or 7 years old when constantly being kept in milk starts to take it's toll and their milk production goes down.They end up as pet food.

Answer 3

Unless you go hunting for your own meat or buy locally from a small farm, I would assume that all meat brands are produced in huge factories with assembly lines. Try to find some farms near where you live or go to a farmer's market. I don't think you would have much luck shopping at a large super market such as in Wal-mart. I never ever buy meat from a supermarket. Those meat producing factories care only about making tons of money, they do not care about you or your health in any way. Those factories also have increased risks of food-borne illness outbreaks. I have absolutely zero trust in them and will not support them.

Answer 4

That is debatable. You certainly wouldn't want to treat a pet the way you treat a dairy cow, but they are treated well enough that they will continue to give lots of milk and are kept healthy and clean so that they don't get sick and spread disease. Dairy cows, and beef cows (the ones we eat) make the most for the farmers when they are well fed, healthy and content or at least docile so farmers take care of their stock. Also by hundreds of years of breeding, cows havebeen bred to do nothing but give milk, be turned into steaks or make more cows so while stockyards and dairy farms probably don't look like much fun for the cows, the cows aren't to terribly bothered by how they are kept, though I doubt the cows going into the slaughterhouse are very happy when it comes to that part of the process.

Answer 5

You are a woman and you should think of this as if they ("humans or some other species") kept you pregnant year after year or gave you hormones so they could use your milk...

Cows, once they have given birth, they give milk for about a year before they dry up. So to get milk, we have to have a continuous supply of calves.

I dont know but I think thats cruelty.

Answer 6

I live near a farmer who keeps dairy cows and I regularly see them out in the fields getting plenty of fresh air, the farmer moves them around into different fields so that they get fresh grass to eat. When i take my dog for a walk down the field strips sometimes the cows come over the the fence to see us, they wouldn't do this if they were scared of humans, so they must be happy. Also milk producing cows must like to be milked as it will release pressure on their udders. Milk also is essential part to the human diet.

Answer 7

No.
In short: cows need to be made pregnant frequently to produce milk then thier calves once born are taken away and made into veal.
also overmilking causes mastitis, so you get to pick between a cow pumped full of antibiotics - or an organic cow thats in pain because its not allowed antibiotics.

Answer 8

My uncle used to be a dairy farmer the cows seemed happy and were not in distress when milked. They grazed and were milked twice a day. I think that’s a good life considering that they cannot use computers or shop! =]
Unfortunately my uncle is now a beef farmer 

Answer 9

depends on the farmer. i know one farm that milks in 3 shifts and thats all those cows do is sit, lay or stand. eat grain and hay from a bucket set right down next to them in their own cozy little stall, go out to the field and meet the bull when their in heat, then they get this huge area he calls the birthing unit where once they are almost due they are put in and get treated with care and are with their babies for a few weeks to a month, and they all get thier udders massaged with ointment and creams and go back and lay down until its their turn to get milked again. poor things have to walk there though, and to the water trough that has a constant flow of drainage and fresh water coming in once its at a certain level so that it does not go stagnant.
but there are some a*sshole farmers out there who do not treat their cows kindly.

Answer 10

I know a few people who have Dairy Cattle and the cows are well fed. One man talk to each cow as he hook up the milking machine and pets them. It really interesting how the cows do. They know when it is time to milk and they all line up at the door to the milk barn. I not think I have ever seen those cows be out of order. Each knows it's place in line.