Truth or Dairy?
Most small family farms have been replaced by corporate-owned
factories where cows are warehoused in huge sheds and treated
like milk machines, never receiving a kind word or a loving touch.
Here are some industry “white lies” and what we say to them:
“Cows Have to Be Milked”
Cows make milk to feed their own babies—not us. To keep the milk
coming, farmers have to keep cows pregnant. “Dairy cows” give
birth to up to six calves during their unnaturally shortened lives
(a cow’s normal life span is 20 to 25 years, but a commercially
raised cow is usually slaughtered by her fifth birthday), and
they are usually given no more than one or two months of rest
between pregnancies. Plus, milking machines are “a constant source
of udder injury,” says veterinarian N. Bruce Haynes.
Dairy farmers tell consumers that it would be cruel not to milk
cows, but calves would naturally “milk” their mothers if they
weren't separated from each other.
And how's this for cruel? Female calves born on dairy farms are
either added to the herd or are killed for the rennet in their
stomachs, which is used to make cheese. Male calves are unwanted
industry byproducts; they are sold to veal farmers. Rather than
frolicking at their loving mothers’ sides, these babies spend
their brief lives alone, stuck in tiny crates so that their flesh
will be tender and pale when they are slaughtered. Calves raised
for veal are killed when they are only 16 weeks old; their first
wobbly steps outside the crates aren’t taken until they are being
led onto trucks bound for the slaughterhouse.
“But Cows Aren’t Killed for Their Milk!”
Did somebody say McDonald’s? When “milk cows” stop producing enough
to remain profitable, their flesh is turned into fast-food burgers
and cheap ground meat. And death doesn’t always come quickly—or
painlessly. At a news conference last year, U.S. Department of
Agriculture inspector Steve Cockerham said he often saw slaughterhouse
workers cut the feet, ears and udders off conscious cows after
stun guns had failed to work. “They were still blinking and moving,”
said Cockerham. “It’s a sickening thing to see.” Farmers also
scoop, gouge and cut the horns from cows’ heads.
“Milk Is a Pure Food”
Got pus? There’s more pus in the milk people drink, says the publisher
of Consumer Reports magazine, thanks to higher infection rates in cows caused by
the use of growth hormones. Oh, and to produce that milk, one
dairy cow excretes 120 pounds of waste every day—as much as two
dozen people. Manure from factory farms often ends up in our waterways.
Hello, Pfiesteria!
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Say, “Soy Cheeze!”
©DMI
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Replace the dairy with cow-friendly “fakes”—Oprah’s fave is soy
cheese! Large supermarkets and health food stores stock a variety
of dairy-free foods like soy, almond, rice and other “milks” (in
chocolate and vanilla flavors, too!); tofu “sour cream” and cream
“cheese"; melt-in-your-mouth nondairy frozen desserts; and dark
chocolate. PETA’s pick: dairy-free desserts like raspberry and
blueberry “Teasecakes” from California’s Now & Zen restaurant—ask
your grocer to stock them.
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