THE VIOLENCE AND INJUSTICE OF DAIRY #FEBRUDAIRY
Dairy; still the biggest lie on an ethical and nutritional level. But why do people still believe that dairy is essential, nutritious, and necessary for us humans, and harmless for animals?
The majority of people still see dairy as a “natural product” for human consumption, necessary for our bones and teeth to be strong, healthy, and important for our overall health because we have been told so our whole lives long. Cow’s milk, sheep, and goat milk are meant for human consumption just like horse milk, cat milk, dog milk, kangaroo milk, lice milk, etc. are meant for human consumption; they are NOT.
On the occasion of dismantling #februdairy month, which was created by dairy farmers as a counterpoint and yet another propaganda and desperate attempt to promote the declining dairy industry, this educational blog post talks about the cruel, violent, and exploitative facts and inhumane methods of the dairy industry in detail to expose the injustice once and for all and to effectively counteract an end to exploitation and murder.
A FEW WORDS UPFRONT
I am certainly not interested in talking about and advocating for a “better way” of exploiting someone against their will. Therefore I am talking about factory farming methods just as about the lies of the animal industry that promise “animal welfare” for the better conscience of people; the organic farming, free-range farming, and all the other lies that are served up in connection with the exploitation of sentient beings.
Truth is, we turn them into products and suppress all their natural behaviors so they can fit into intensive production systems. Humans are the only species consuming breast milk (of another species) after infancy. That is bizarre, it just is!
WHAT IS ANIMAL MILK? WHAT IS DAIRY?
Dairy is a processed “product” made out of the breast milk of female mammals, most commonly cattle, water buffaloes, goats, sheep, and camels. In each mammalian species, milk has its unique chemical composition, containing a cocktail of different hormones specific to that species, and is therefore unique to that species.
Humans are not meant to consume the breast milk of another species, and human bodies cannot process and tolerate it which shows itself in discomfort (flatulence, painful cramps, and diarrhea), incompatibilities, and intolerances. It is baby food for another species. It is just bizarre to consume it when you think about it.
Milk contains a type of sugar called lactose. When we are babies, our bodies make a special enzyme called lactase that allows us to digest the lactose in our mother’s milk, but after we are weaned most bodies don’t produce lactase anymore and breast milk can't be digested properly anymore. When evolution kicked in and some people began to keep their lactase enzymes active into adulthood.
“Cow’s milk contains calcium as well as protein and vitamins B2 and B12, but dairy products also contain unhealthy substances such as saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, cholesterol, and sodium. High consumption of these substances is associated with an increased risk of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease,” says ProVeg International.
➸ Read more about it all here!
When you think about it, milk is an absurd thing to drink. It’s a liquid made by a cow or other animal to feed its young; we have to squirt it out of the cow’s udders to obtain it.
WHEN DOES AN ANIMAL GIVE MILK?
I never thought about when an animal gives milk because for me it was simply a given. If you would have asked me that question, I would have honestly and seriously said that a female animal always gives milk and that they must be milked. I also thought that they are not harmed in the process of milking; that they wouldn’t mind without EVER researching anything. That’s how strong conditioning is. I had the romantic image in my head that the animals live on an idyllic meadow, grazing all day long and don’t need the milk anyway, and that no harm is done to them in the process. Holy shit, I could not have been more wrong.
Milk is naturally produced by most female mammals when they have given birth to their offspring. Breast milk is here to feed the babies, providing them with all the nutrients they need to grow as fast and efficiently as possible.
THE LIFE OF ANIMALS EXPLOITED FOR DAIRY
Animals in the animal industry have anything but a good life (none of them). Animals suffer. They are stolen of their free will, their bodily autonomy and suffer from tremendous mental and physical pain. They are prisoners, they are victims to a system that breeds them into existence for profits and kills them by the trillions each year.
Female individuals get raped (sexually assaulted) against their will each year to give birth to calves to produce milk. The industry likes to belittle this horrible act and call it “artificial insemination” (AI), which implies that it is a normal, harmless and tolerable act. It’s mental torture as well as a recurring physical strain for the individual. As soon as the babies see the light of day, they are immediately separated from their mother and raised in a small shed being fed substitute mother’s milk. They are now also part of the milk system (born into it) and a profit contributor for the farmers.
For every cow producing milk for human consumption, there is a calf somewhere going without.
We all know how intensely strong and important a mother-child bond can be. It is pure agony for both. Mothers and babies cry for each other for more than weeks. In vain. They will not reconnect ever again. The industry calls these outcries “spirited and curious” and soothes any public concerns and doubts with a satisfying “understandable and reassuring explanation.”
Female calves are raised to one day replace their mothers in the production chain. For the farmers and the system, they have become production machines and their only purpose is to serve profit.
Male calves don’t serve any purpose in the dairy industry. That is why they get killed on their first day of life and sold as veal (baby flesh) or used for their soft skin (leather) or raised to get killed.
BRANDINGS, TATTOOS & EAR TAGS
One way to identify non-human animals of certain species is to branding or tattooing their bodies or tagging their ears with a number, to identify them and mark the day of their murder.
A number to “identify” them. We have seen this act throughout history. Let that sink in for a moment.
Most governments require identification of ownership of farmed animals as they are still seen as property by law. Hot iron brandings are still a very common but very cruel and painful practice to oppress an individual and degrade their life to a number and condemn them to lifelong ownership. Calves and colts are branded before being weaned (at approximately 3–5 months of age) because farmers believe it is easier to handle and tie them up at this age.
Normally the branding is made on a visible part of the individual’s body but sometimes it’s done on a less visible one if their skins are about to be taken for leather.
➸ Read about “Leather Is Not Your Skin To Wear”
DOWNERS
A downer cow is an individual, who cannot stand on their own feet anymore due to the intense exhaustion of lifelong exploitation.
The most likely reason for a cow to go down is trauma. This could be post-calving, a metabolic issue (such as milk fever), or a disease such as mastitis or metritis. This damage also occurs because an overbred and overstressed individual is carrying too much extra weight in heavy pressure on their muscles and nerves. This is made worse in many diseases by the cow is unable to shift position to prevent continuous bearing of weight.
Downers can’t hold themselves anymore after being forcefully impregnated over and over again.
Their bodies just shut down. These individuals will be murdered because they are spent. They won’t serve any purpose anymore, but their flesh.
Most of them have given up mentally and their will to live just isn’t strong enough anymore.
MOTHER COW HUSBANDRY
Have you heard about the practice of “maternal calf husbandry”, “calf rearing” and “mother cow husbandry”? As mentioned above, the majority of calves are separated from their mom right after or shortly after birth. Some farms like to brag about this type of animal husbandry to romanticize the dairy industry to make more profits and to benefit themselves; not to do the animals any good.
Maternal calf husbandry also leads just like any other animal farm to the killing factories when it is about time, yet they are still a part of the system. Those farms that practice this form of husbandry, also artificially inseminate female non-human animals without their consent, let the mother have the baby, exploit them for their milk, sell their babies and kill them if they are “spent”. If a cow is “spent” it means that she is too weak and not profitable anymore; at around the age of 5 (still a child) when she could get around 25 years old.
WEANER DEVICES & ANTI-SUCKLING DEVICES
Weaner devices—also called anti-suckling devices—can come in all different forms, like plastic spiked nose rings, flat flaps, metal flaps with breath-holes, muzzle made of string, etc. but they all have one purpose only: to keep the calf away from their mom’s udder to prevent them from drinking their mother’s breast milk.
This is a common practice during “mother cow husbandry”, to pretend that the “happy animals” live a “healthy life and a good life together”, but not having to cut back on those profits. They are also used on a cow, to prevent them from trying to nurse on another cow. If they do nurse on another cow, it can easily cause mastitis.
DEHORNING (NEWBORN) CALVES
In nature, animals grow horns so they can defend themselves. In the animal industry, they are not wanted because they pose a danger to other animals and to farmers, which could mean additional costs or huge financial losses if individuals made use of them. Therefore the animals, mostly cows, sheep, goats, etc. get forcefully dehorned or disbudded. This procedure is usually performed without anesthesia to save time and money, is extremely painful for the animals, apart from the fact that it causes them suffering and pain and violates their bodily autonomy in the first place.
The cruel and torturous dehorning of mostly newborns has several self-serving reasons. Dehorning decreases the risk of injuries and bruises happening to herd members. It reduces financial losses from trimming damaged carcasses caused by horned animals during transport to slaughter. The individuals also take less space in the barn, at the feedlot, and during transport which in turn leads to keeping even more animals in even more confined space, which in turn leads to more profit. It reduces the risk of farmers getting injured when animals try to withstand the forced oppression, exploitation, abuse.
PORTHOLES
Portholes are openings on the side of a cow that allows researchers to access an animal’s stomach with a cannula. They are justified by the fact that “they are made for stomach examinations for the benefit of the animal,” which per se is not false information but a circumvented reason.
The real and more far-reaching reason and aim of farmers are that, of course, a certain ‘health’ standard and effective way of feeding the animals is important to them in order to make as much profit as possible with them. If these individuals wouldn’t be bred into existence and exploited for their bodies, we wouldn’t have to worry about it, would we?
There are three ways to examine a cow’s stomach - by using samples from deceased cows, a stomach tube, or cannulation.
”Many of them already suffer from lameness, infections, lung or heart problems. And yet, instead of stopping this cycle, we are always pushing further. It is high time to put this unfair system into question.” says Brigitte Gothière of L214 éthique & animaux.
BLINDFOLDING CATTLE
Blindfolding animals and the reasons for it is not yet widely publicly known and therefore not talked about much. What sounds like a scene from a horror movie to us, is the ugly reality for some non-human animals on this planet.
One online distributor advertises it online with the following words “We designed this blindfold to help make life a little less stressful for you and your calf.”
Frankly, only the farmer benefits and is comforted by the fact that they are dealing with a confused, lost, and disoriented being rather than a frightened one and do not have to look them directly in the eye while inflicting pain or taking their life. It is not for nothing that they say the eyes are the window to the soul and that one look is worth a thousand words. One look can captivate you mentally and haunt you for a lifetime.
These are the words of a woman, a farmer, standing right at the entry of a slaughterhouse in Austria:
“We kill our animals very gently. We tie them to a rope, take them outside, blindfold them, and relax them by scratching their butts before we kill them”. By that, she meant before they stun their heads with a bolt gun and slit their throats. How gentle of them [irony off].
ADVERTISEMENT OF DAIRY
The conditioning of normalizing violence against animals is passed down from generation to generation.
The dairy industry hides inhumane practices on animals behind closed doors. Manipulative and conditioning advertising is skillfully placed to give people the message that they are supporting something good. Advertising is targeted to make people feel better about it on the inside when they buy and consume sentient beings. The lies and dishonesty of the animal industry are deeply rooted in our traditions and habits that are passed down from generation to generation. And building on these habits, advertising is used to persuade people to do something they would never knowingly agree with.
The animal industry likes to play with euphemistic words and tries to irritate the consumers with half-truths and critical information or deliberately controlled studies that should distract from the suffering and “life” of the animals. “If it concerns the murder of an animal nothing is to be questioned,” that is how the animal industry operates. Humans are to be kept away by absurd shock articles from the purely plant-based diet and a fair way of thinking, because there is so much money in the animal industry, of course. The behavior of people is controlled by uncertainty, because if someone is not sure about something (e.g. that it might not be healthy) then they prefer to do what they are used to; consume animal products.
Once you understand how advertising works and how it ignores the horrible and abusive reality of non-human animals, you cannot believe that such manipulative and simply misleading advertising strategies are legal. This illustrates the massive lobby in this industry.
ANTIBIOTICS, PUS CELLS & ZOONOSES
Even though this article keeps the focus on ethics, especially in times like these it is also important to consider the health aspect as well as the global impact.
Animal husbandry—objectifying animals as products and breeding them as such,—and mass farming of dairy cows can lead to the rapid spread of diseases on farms, which is one of the reasons why antibiotics are often added to feed. Heavy use of antibiotics promotes antibiotic resistance, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified as a serious threat to global public health.
➸ Watch this video about Antibiotic Resistance by Earthling Ed
Furthermore, due to the mass breeding and husbandry of animals, insufficient hygienic conditions are a given which cause inflammation at animals’ lacteal glands (bovine mastitis; the persistent, inflammatory reaction of the udder tissue due to physical trauma or microorganisms infections) and pus is often present in animal milk. Besides the potential toxins present in the milk, the bacteria that cause mastitis have zoonotic potential.
➸ Read my blog post “The Vicious Cycle Of Zoonotic Diseases”
THEY WANT TO LIVE
This should be enough information for everyone to understand the urgency, necessity, and moral obligation of a vegan way of living and to choose it out of justice. Adapt the attitude towards life to prevent any animal suffering and especially direct animal suffering. Non-human animals are also sentient beings with a nervous system, a brain, and therefore full consciousness. They show affection and an interest in life, just like us. They want to be with their family, just like us. They are worthy of life, just like us.
Remove dairy products, meat, leather, wool, products tested on animals, and all other products of animal origin from your life from now on, and above all: stop supporting this cruel industry with your money. Adjust your actions to your moral values and consciously begin to realize that your choices matter; every single one.
Stop saying that you are sorry and that you can’t. You can, so DO something. Actively eliminate animal cruelty, violence, and exploitation of any kind on your behalf and help others to make the change too.
It is NEVER ok to hold others captive for our profits without their consent. It is NEVER ok to steal babies and send them off to slaughter. It is NEVER ok to belittle and sweet-talk such a horrible act of violence and inhumanity.
Don’t buy the lies! Don’t pay for the exploitation, violence, and murder!
SOLUTION
The most important thing is to recognize and understand the unimaginable suffering that the animal milk industry causes to its respective species. It is also important to understand the role we, ourselves, play in a system built on the oppression of others. When we begin to become aware of this, we can more easily make rational, compassionate, and conscious decisions that are good for all and not just for some.
There are endless options to switch to actual foods and liquids made from plants. We just have to want to see them. Where there is a will, a realization, and understanding, there is a way.
Choose among the following plant-milks: oat, almond, coconut, walnut, hemp, rice, soy, cashew, lupine, pea, peanut, … many of them you can also make yourself at home.
➸ Visit my “recommended pages” page to find accounts sharing plant-based recipes from all over the world! There you will also find recommended pages with information about nutrition (including plant-based doctors)!
Pro-Tip
Try different brands, because different brands have different recipes and taste to them (taste is subjective). Give your taste buds time to adjust to other tastes. When making your own plant-milk sweeten them with syrups like agave, maple, dandelion, rice, or date, and give them a chocolate flavor by adding organic cocoa powder.
➸ Read why honey is not vegan and kills bees
Now check in with yourself and ask yourself if your taste is really more important than the lives of others? I know that you already know the answer yourself.
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NOT YET VEGAN?
Please check out this page and make the change!
Please note:
➸ when the term "human" is used, then human animals are meant by it, and the same applies to the term "animal", who are non-human animals.➸ text and illustrations are intellectual property of Kerstin Brueller. Sharing the content for private purposes is appreciated and always to be provided with a copyright. It is prohibited to copy and share it for commercial purposes. Please contact me for a collaboration, if you are unsure or have any further questions. Thanks for your understanding.➸ I personally care much about symbolism and the meaning of certain shapes and metaphors. The images and interpretations are the representation of my own imagination.SOURCES
➸ In my research work, I keep an eye on a wide variety of information on various websites. I have deliberately decided not to include websites of associations, organizations, and clubs that endorse and actively support animal exploitation in my list of sources, so as not to offer them an additional platform and generate possible page views. For further information about the origin of my information, I am always at your disposal. Thank you for your understanding!
World Health Organisation – Antibiotic Resistance
Simple Vegan Blog – How To Make Oat-Milk
Earthling Ed – Coronavirus is just the beginning. Something much worse is coming
Peta – Dehorning: Dairy’s Dark Secret
RSPCA – What are the animal welfare issues with weaning nose rings and other anti-suckling devices for calves?
