Not trying to bash on vegans. but i was wondering....?

Question

Isn't it good for cows to be milked? becuase if they don't doesn't it, the milk, get all hardened up in the utter or whatever? causeing the cow extreme pain? i thought i read this somewhere. but i dunno if i did or not.
i'm nto trying to be mean seriously, i'm a vegetarian and it's relaly weird being asked weird questions but i'm just trying to get clear on the subject...
thanks peole! xoxoxoxoooo

Answer 1

Cows normally have calves to drink their milk. That's why they have milk...because they just gave birth to a baby cow. Unfortunately, mama cows have their baby cows taken away about a day after being born so the milk can be used for human consumption. The milking period is prolonged chemically (special feed and bovine growth hormones - yum!) to get the most milk out of a cow (10-20 times more than the cow would naturally produce for her calf). This is incredibly stressful for the cow. Cows normally live about 25 years. Only a quarter of dairy cows live over 7 years and and a quarter are killed before they're 3 years old.
So, what happens to those baby cows after they're taken from their mother? Well, some will become veal - that's the meat of baby cows and the dairy industry created this delicacy specifically so they'd have a way to make money off the calves they'd take from the mama cows. Veal calves are kept in tiny cages so they can't move and their meat will stay tender.
About a million calves a year that are less than a week old are killed for the rennet (an enzyme) in their stomach (used to make cheese) and their bones are ground up as an ingredient for dog biscuits. The lucky ones will be chosen as "herd replacement" (so they can be kept constantly pregnant, have their calves taken from them, and then die an early death, too).



Perhaps the udder pain you are thinking of is mastitis.
"Up to 33% of dairy cows develop mastitis, a very painful udder infection that can become systemic, and is a common reason for early slaughtering. Abnormally large udders produce problems walking, so a cow's legs are usually spread apart, distorting the normal configurations of her pelvis and spine. Her back problems are aggravated when she must walk on hard ground and concrete."
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=373&more=1

There are some other painful issues cows have to endure in dairy farms:
"Producing large quantities of milk puts a significant metabolic strain on the animal. The great weight of the udders often causes painful stretching or tearing of ligaments and frequently causes foot problems, such as laminitis. These foot problems can be associated with significant pain. Dairy cattle are also susceptible to infections of the teat and udder (mastitis) - this can be very painful.

The milking machine itself may render the cow more susceptible to infection. The front teats may be subjected to vacuum pulsing for up to two minutes after the quarter has been emptied and while the hind teats are still yielding. This is believed to be painful for the cow, and may also weaken tissue. The nature of the vacuum milking process is known to increase the possibility of infection."
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/factsheets/dairy_cows.php

All those infections, by the way, mean the cows get treated with loads of antibiotics. So besides the bovine growth hormone, the pus from the infections (this is not made up - there are "pus counts" for every state. Check it out: http://www.notmilk.com/lawbreakers.html ), the actual milk protein itself (which HAS been shown to contribute to cancer http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=976491&dopt=Citation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17158430&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus ), but you've also got these lovely antibiotics you're sucking down and doctors already recommend you do not take antibiotics too much because they can create germs that are antibiotic resistant http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antibiotics/FL00075

So, hope this helps you understand a bit more about cows and dairy in general.

P.S. As someone mentioned, it IS weird to drink cow's milk. Humans are the only ones who drink milk once they're grown and they're the only animals that drink the milk from another animal. Weird, indeed.

Answer 2

As a breastfeeding mom, I can explain how it works! And yes all mammals basically are designed the same with mammary glands, milk ducts, and nipples (or udders as they are called on the cow). When I stop breastfeeding for whatever reason, yeah it hurts!! It stings, my breasts get engorged/ hard, I'm uncomfortable, and so on! After about 2 days of this, it resides, by the third day I have little to no pain left. Every mothering mammal works on the supply and demand rule! When baby demands it, it will come (might take 2-3 days but it comes). When baby backs off for whatever reason, the milk suplly starts decreasing as well! Of course it does take longer than 3 days for me to dry up, but the pain only lasts 3 day at tops and my milk really decreases. So for the cow (can't say exact number as I don't speak their language), it could take longer for the pain to subside as they feed a larger animal and have more milk overall, but the pain does go away. There is a common problem amongst farm factoring/ mass producing milk cows called mastitis. This occurs in cows when they stop mass producing milk, and it does explain what you are speaking of, but includes so much more. This tends to only occur amongst these particular cows because they are unnaturally producing too much milk (hormones and having too many babies in short periods of time), and their bodies can't handle so it reacts with severe infection!

Answer 3

It may be uncomfortable for a little while, but "extreme pain" sounds like nonsense.

When women stop breastfeeding, do they have to check into a hospital due to "extreme pain"?

The dairy farmers only milk them so many times a day which means that they are uncomfortable during certain times of EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES during the time right before being milked. A cow is supposed to nurse her calf all day long
not once or twice a day.

If anyone is concerned for the cows, they would let them stop lactating and stop getting them pregnant.

The dairy operators DO NOT care about what is BEST for the animals. They are trying to make money. Whatever will make the most money is what they will do.

Answer 4

> Isn't it good for cows to be milked?
by their baby, yes.

> becuase if they don't doesn't it, the milk,
> get all hardened up in the utter or whatever?
ha ha ha... no.

> causing the cow extreme pain?
the pain is caused by engorged udders due to the over production of milk caused by hormones injected into the cow.

Under natural circumstances, if not 'milked' the milk reintergrates back into the body. Same with humans.

Answer 5

It is good for cows to be milked. This naturally occurs when a calf is nursing. But cows aren't fountains. Cows do stop producing milk naturally when they stop needing to (to feed their babies, when they wean) just like people. Of course the moms have some leakage and discomfort at the time, but they do "dry up" if left alone.

For some vegans, the issue is consuming something that they see as not being intended for them (milk is for calves). There are other reasons, too. I avoid mass-produced milk and go after organic stuff. I don't like the idea of contributing to an environment where cows are treated as milk machines and manipulated (be it through hormones or back-to-back pregnancies and deliveries) to produce the largest volume of milk.

So, short answer: if the cow is left alone, then no, it's not bad to not milk it because either the calf will drink it or the cow will stop producing. But if you are flooding the cow with hormones to make it produce more milk, then yeah, it probably is bad for the cow to not have an outlet.

Answer 6

Um yes, But isn't it also weird that we drink milk from an animal? And not just that but also some people even feed the cows milk to cats.....
Also I think that although its okay to milk a cow
Its not okay to OVER milk a cow. Things should have limits.
Well I am a carnavour and I believe that its okay to kill for food
but not Kill for fur "fashion".
:)

Answer 7

Well, in the current system we have created you are right in that the cows need to be milked, thats because we take their young off them and feed the cows with hormone enriched food so they prodcue more milk. if we left the cows to thier natural state they would nto need milking. So its a probelm we have creatd and coud easily cure if we so wanted.

Here are some other issues with the milk industry that informed consumers might want to know about

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 recently ( 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.

Answer 8

The reason a cow produces milk is to provide nutrients to its young. Does a calf milk its mother, no. It nurses. Cows do not need to be milked, they need to be nursed.

Answer 9

No in a natural life a cow would only produce enough milk for her calf. When it was weaned she would no longer produce milk.
Here is a site that will explain all the ins & outs on Milk.
http://www.notmilk.com/

Answer 10

The cows wouldn't be pregnant in the first place if they weren't constantly artificially inseminated. Would you like to be hooked to an automatic milker?