Do cows suffer ,in the process of giving milk for humans?

Question

Organic is O.K
and free range,but the other stuff Im not sure about.

Im wondering if I can eat cheese,or if it has caused animals any suffering(in the making of it)

I dont want to eat any foods ,where animals have suffered ,in the production of the food.
Finding it hard,to know what to eat and what not too.

Answer 1

To produce milk an animal has to be pregnant, so ask yourself what happens to all the calfs, they are not out in the fields grazing, enjoying life...they are off to the slaughter house, surplus to requirements ~ switch to soya milk...no more animal suffering

Answer 2

It depends on the farm and place but usually if it is a big company then unfortunatley yes it is the fact that much of the process isn't a natural process with the machines and certain pregnancy issues. Not all of them are treated like this and there are other alternatives and not just vegan cheeses either. It is better to use free range and organic food items though but sometimes mistakes are made or if you live on a farm yourself you could take care of the animals and treat them right but if you live in the city you can do some research on some things. But if it is a very small farm then usually not and they might usually use the milk for themselves and hand milk the animals it isn't truly that they are being milked that hurts them though.

Answer 3

It is only a relief for cows to be milked as they have been bred over the years to be deformed with huge udders.
After they are no good for milking at 5-8 they are killed, there is no cow retirement home. Even the nicest farmer can't keep all his old cows. Naturally they live up to 20.
And the whole calf thing, as other people has said.

Organic dairy is actually CRUELLER - because If the cow gets mastitis (an udder infection) from over milking, they are not allowed antibiotics so have to suffer in pain instead.
breasfeeding humans can get mastitis too, and they will tell you how painful it is!

Answer 4

Yes because
in order for a cow to produce milk, she must have a calf. “Dairy cows” are impregnated every year so that they will keep up a steady supply of milk. In the natural order of things, the cow’s calf would drink her milk—eliminating her “need” to be milked by humans. But dairy cows’ calves are taken away within a day or two of birth so that humans can have the milk that nature intended for the calves. This separation is extremely traumatic for both the mother and her calf. Female calves are slaughtered immediately or raised for their milk. Male calves are confined for weeks to tiny veal crates that are too small for them even to turn around in so they will not develop the muscle mass of an animal who is free to move about.
The current demand for dairy products requires cows to be pushed beyond their natural limits, genetically engineered, and fed growth hormones in order to produce far more milk than they would naturally.

Answer 5

As S.H.I.E.L.D. and Mockingbird point out, the process of giving milk, per se, does not hurt the cow. However, the constant pregnancy, the hormones, the antibiotics, the machines pulling at their udders, the mastitis, the loss of their babies--cows make milk for their babies, not for us, and the calf is torn away from his or her mama within hours of birth--the cows do suffer from that. And they are slaughtered when production wanes, at a fraction of their natural lifespan.

So your cheese indeed causes suffering. And sadly, vegan cheese doesn't melt all that well. I don't own it, but you may want to check out "The UnCheese Cookbook" by Joanne Stepaniak.

And free-range is just greenwashing, as there's no guarantee the cows get to be in pasture at all.

And they don't "give" milk for humans; it is stolen from them and their babies.

Answer 6

It's not giving milk that causes the suffering.

In order for the cows to give milk, they have to be pregnant (just like every other mammal on the planet). Pregnant cows have babies and baby cows supply the veal industry. Many people think of veal as a product of the beef industry when in fact it is a byproduct of the dairy industry.

Answer 7

Cows, like human mothers, don't produce milk unless they've given birth. This is as Nature intended because the milk a cow makes is for her baby. Left to her own devices a cow would calf every year or two and the baby would drink the milk. She would not be in pain from swollen udders and wouldn't need a farmer to provide her relief - her calf would do that.

In a dairy operation, cows are forcibly artificially inseminated (google the term "rape rack") to keep them pregnant and producing. Babies are removed from their mothers within the first 24 hours of life so they don't drink up the profits. Females are formula-raised so that they can grow up and follow in their mothers' footsteps. Baby boys are even less lucky; they are no use to a dairy operation, so they spend a couple of months in a veal crate and then are slaughtered for their pale, tender meat.

Dairy cows have been selectively bred to have oversized udders and produce far more milk than Nature designed them to. They are mechanically milked and the majority of them suffer from chronic mastitis, a painful infection. They are pumped full of antibiotics to keep infection at bay, along with hormones to produce more milk.

Because they are forced to calf at an unnatural rate, cows in a commercial dairy operation do not live 15-20 years as they would naturally. Instead, they are "used up" after 5 or 6 and are slaughtered for cheap beef.

Yes, cows suffer in the process of "giving" milk to humans. Just as chickens suffer in the "giving" of eggs to humans. Both the dairy and egg industries contribute directly to suffering and slaughter. By purchasing dairy products you are indirectly supporting the veal industry. And "free range" is a meaningless term; there is no legal definition of it so producers can slap it on their product if the animal so much as ever saw daylight.

Answer 8

Organic and "free range" do little to make the animals' lives more tolerable.

Dairy cows are milked longer than would be required to raise a calf. Calves suckle all day long but in a dairy, the cows are only milked a small number of times each day. Engorged mammaries are very uncomfortable for any mammal. This pain would end if the animal is left to allow things to end naturally but dairies milk cows indefinately so that they suffer to a certain degree ever day of their lives.

What do you think that organic dairies do with male calves?

Answer 9

I'm being hypocritical in answering this because I do drink milk. I'm a vegetarian not a vegan. My view is this, the actual act does not harm the cow but the industry does. They are locked in tight places with machines attached to their utters and treated as machines themselves. So yeah, veganism really is the more cruelty-free approach but I think if we all do atleast a small part than it must count for something.

Answer 10

It's great you are taking an interest. Most people don't know and don't want to know.

Organic is OK in the sense that dairy cows aren't given chemicals in their feed so that's a start. Secondly British organic dairy farms are not allowed to sell calves to continental Europe where they will spend their short and miserable life confined in a veal crate. But EU promised to phase these crates out by 2008.

Sadly however, organic or not, it is a business and all male calves born to dairy cows will not grow to produce milk. Although very few are kept for them to grow to produce sperm to inseminiate the dairy cows in order for them to produce milk, every year 150,000 calves from all British organic and non organic dairy farms are separated from their mothers and shot dead soon after birth.

That's 411 calves shot dead in the UK everyday. Shocking!

Well, shooting would be considered to be humane slaughtering by many people because it's fairly quick, but I personally don't believe in killing at all. More importantly, separating the calves and the cows right after birth seems cruel and inhumane to me, but both organic and non organic dairy farms practise this. There are reports that say it's very distressing for both mum and the calf, but I have yet to witness this. Maybe youtube would have a clip on this?

Organic dairy farms in the UK are banned from selling the calves to neighbouring France and Italy, but they shoot them instead. Non organic dairy farms practise this, too because fewer people want veal and some farmers blame the consumer for not wanting veal and they have to resort to shooting the calves soon after they are born.

So they are harmed and it must be distressing for dairy cows to have their calves removed from them soon after they've just given birth.

Since it's a business, when dairy cows milk production starts to go down, organic or not, they are sent to be slaughtered before they are five, but cows can live up to 20 years. By the time they are slaughtered, their 'meat' is too tough so they are made into stock cubes instead. But at least organic dairy farms do treat their dairy cows better by allowing them to graze instead of feeding them chemicals.

So although organic dairy cows do have a better life before they are sent to the slaughterhouse and made into organic beef stock, and male calves born in organic dairy farms will not suffer from the inhumae practice of veal crate, they are either separated soon after birth and male calves are shot dead soon after the separation.

I would count that as causing suffering.

People who think they 'need' to be milked are mislead by the industry. People milk them because they steal their baby and kill it and the milk was intended for their calves. Just like any mammals, if their young is no longer present after birth, cows would stop lactating. Human beings don't milk them out of pity or favour and sympathy. They do it to make a living. In big super markets' case, make a fortunte.

Answer 11

Yes unfortunately I really love cheese. It is the way these cows are raised, housed, fed, and ultimately (yes I know they are dairy cows) slaughtered that makes their lives miserable