how is dairy farms more cruel to cows than cattle raised for meat?

Question

I would like to know because im kinda thinking about going vegan because the whole reason i wanted to be veggie was because of animal cruelty!

Answer 1

There are many issues wth dairy farming.

I am writing this because i have first hand knowledge - owning an arable farm in amongst dairy and beef farms, seeing them approx every other day because we visit them to see about rescue Jerseys. The farms I'm talking about here are nationally recognised as being the best in the industry, they have viewing gallaries and consistantly win awards so we are not talking about the average or less, we are talking about the BEST here. And this is UK farms which are recognised as having the best husbandry in the world.

Artificial incemination every year
Cows would naturally calve every 2-3 years. Dairy farms artificially inceminate them every 11 months.

Hormone enriched feed
The feed they are given is enriched with artificial growth foods. these are always made with cattle meat protiens.

Bribe/feed caged carousels
These suck. They are large rotating carousels where the cows are caged in a space where they cannot move. They have "black boxes" on thier legs which communicate with the main operating computer. They are fed just the right amount of food depending on how much milk they gave yesterday. They have added growth food if thier production drops
One person can milk about 400 cattle on a carousel so there is no time for checking the animals health - they just milk them dry and kick them out.

killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old
All bulls are killed at 1 week old. They do not keep any back for breeding as they bring in new blood lines. In the UK we don't use dairy bull calves for veal anymore.
They kill all free martins as there is a good chance they will be barren
Strangly, they feel these animals with colostrum at birth to keep them alive, but then kill them a week later.

excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day
The growth food is all designed to produce excess milk. Cows are naturally designed to produce about 15 litres.

intensive rearing means low husbandry checks
As mentioned above, most automatic dairies have one milkmaid per session, thats it. I know a dairy farm with 1200 cattle and 3 employees. Tell me how they can every check the cattle....Talking to one farmer last night ( at our farmers season dinner ) he has just lost 17 cattle in 2 months. He only phoned DEFRA after the tenth one died, until then, he didn't care why they died, it was just a fact of business to him.

removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed
This is stressful, cows bawl for weeks for thier young, calling them to be fed. Obviously the calve cannot "run to mom" because its in dog food by now.

killing the cow at 7 years old
Cows can naturally live to 20 years old. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.

Hope that helps.

I suppose you could go with the "cows are the same as brocolli" arguement if you really wanted to.

Answer 2

Dairy cattle have been bred to have grotesquely large udders to increase milk production. Even if calves were not taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth so they don't eat up the profits, they would likely not be able to nurse successfully from these Franken-udders. But they are removed from Nature's ideal food source and raised on formula. Males are worthless to a dairy operation, so they are sold for veal and made to live in a crate they cannot turn around in. Females become dairy cows in turn. Because Nature designed mammals to lactate in conjunction with giving birth, dairy cattle are repeatedly artificially inseminated to keep them pregnant and producing. Mechanical milking causes a painful infection known as mastitis and, along with the hormones and steroids they are given to increase milk production, cows are routinely injected with anitbiotics to keep the mastitis under control. This isn't always successful and tests have found unacceptable levels of blood and pus in the milk supply because of it. While, under normal conditions, a cow would live for 20 years, a dairy cow is "used up" after 5 and is still slaughtered for cheap beef.

The egg industry is similarly cruel to chickens and male chicks, like male calves, get the short end of the stick. They are useless so, as soon as they are sexed, they are discarded in dumpsters to starve or suffocate (or they are put alive into a grinder so they can be used to make feed.)

Answer 3

Dairy Industry Cruelty

Answer 4

i work on a diary farm and I can assure you that not all dairy farms are cruel dairy doesn't raise bulls for veal they stay with us for 13 weeks lead a very good healthy life and are sold to a beef farmer. our calfs stay with their mothers until the crutial colostrum feeds. he reason for that is if you don't remove the calf then the mother can get very temperamental and unpredictable. our cows are fed 2 times a day, we work with a nutritionist to find out the best feed not for milk production but for there health, none of our calves ever get to the point of lameness, yes we have mastitis t you'd be lying if you said your dairy didn't. I think next time you should talk to dairy farmers before using this.

Answer 5

omg brocolli does not have a "brain" and doesnt think about anything... and no cows will not die if you dont milk them..if they were left naturally their babies would drink the milk!!!! the only reason they need to be milked is because they are made pregnant over and over to keep producing milk and they steal their babies after a day or two to go to the veal farm, to be raised for meat or be recyled into the dairy industry. i know a vet who for a few months a year only does c sections on cows because they breed the females so young their bodies arent big enough to deliver a baby naturally, all this so that the cows will start to produce milk earlier. the cows are kept in bad conditions and need to be pumped with antibiotics because they are milked so much by machines that their udders become infected and painful. they are also given steroids and hormones to increase milk production to an abnormal level. after about 5-7 years ( a fraction of a cows life span) they are no longer productive due to years of exploitation and are sent to the slaughter house. so basically dairy cows feed the veal industry as well as the rest of the meat industry.

Answer 6

If you do not milk a dairy cow their udders become full and are painful so the milking makes them feel better. They will line up at the barn in the am ready to be milked. And come in at night whe nit is time to milk again.

Answer 7

All i can tell u is that a friend of mines told me that one day when she was walking to the barn to get something she saw her dad & his friends tackle a cow & then proceeded to bash the animals head with a sledge hammer. That is very cruel indeed. :-(

Answer 8

Dairy is worse because they're forced to perform for years of their lives; artificially inseminated, giving birth, then having their babies taken away. If the baby is female she goes into beef or dairy production. If the baby is male he goes to a veal crate. They repeat this cycle for years until she's too worn out to keep producing, then she's sent to be slaughtered for meat anyway.

Answer 9

I just watched a video and they keep the cows pregnant forever so they can produce milk. Their calves don't spend a minute with them and they're auctioned for meat as well - veal - and whatnot.

It's equally awful. They both suck to so many levels.

Answer 10

Because for Cows kept for meat, the captivity ends quickly.

Do your part to end Bovine suffering: Eat more cow!