Here’s Why Cows Hate Humans Who Eat Cheese

Killing millions of animals every year, polluting the water supply with excrement, riddling the human body with disease—beef and cheese have an awful lot in common.

Hey, we’re not here to split hairs. Both industries are helping the world go to hell in a handbasket. But for defensive vegetarians out there, we want you all to know that the cheese industry is actually worse than the beef industry. Here are some of the biggest reasons why:

Destroying families is the only way that the cheese industry can operate.

In order to produce milk, farmers forcibly inseminate cows over and over. Workers then tear the babies away from their mothers so that humans can take their milk. Farmers typically sell male calves to veal farms and doom female calves to lead the same heartbreaking lives as their mothers.

These gentle giants are known to mourn the deaths of loved ones, sometimes shedding tears over their loss. There are countless reports of mother cows who have continued to call and search frantically for their babies after they’ve been taken away. Imagine the trauma that mother cows feel when workers drag away their babies just hours after they’ve given birth to them.

A cow carries her baby for about the same length of time as a human. But less than two months after they take her calf, workers forcibly impregnate her again, and the trauma begins anew.

Cows used for dairy suffer longer, and they end up dying in the same agonizing way.

Whether for beef or for dairy, cows live in filthy, cramped conditions, unable to do even the simplest things such as nap in the grass, play, or spend time with loved ones. The only difference is how long they suffer before being shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun and strung up by one leg on the killing floor, where their throats are cut and they’re skinned and gutted.

Cows killed for beef are slaughtered when they’re anywhere from 6 months to 2 years of age. Those used to produce milk live on dairy farms for four or five years, until their bodies break down and they’re unable to produce milk any longer. At that point, they’re sent to the same slaughterhouses as the cows killed for beef. Their bodies are often turned into soup, ground beef, or dog and cat food, because their flesh is too “spent” to be used for much else.

So, would you rather languish on a farm for a year or two and then be killed via throat slitting, or would you rather endure five years of forcible impregnation, the loss of multiple babies, and daily milking and then be killed via throat slitting?

Dairy is harder to avoid than beef—on purpose.

Ever wonder why it seems like so many products, even some potato chips and tomato sauce, contain milk? As a result of decades of bad policy and buying off politicians by the dairy industry, America continues to guzzle unwanted milk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that our country has 1.4 billion pounds of surplus cheese, and our government has dished out millions in tax dollars to support the crumbling industry. Over 70% of the U.S. milk market is subsidized by our government.

The same policies responsible for the promotion of dairy products also create shady new ways to get Americans to consume them. The USDA forms partnerships with corporations like McDonald’s and Domino’s to create milk-heavy menu items.

You can actually develop an addiction to cheese.

Cheese contains a high concentration of the milk protein casein. Scientists note that when this protein is digested, casomorphin (an opiate) is released into the blood stream.

Dr. Neal Barnard, New York Times bestselling author of The Cheese Trap, states, “These opiates attach to the same brain receptors that heroin and morphine attach to. They are not strong enough to get you arrested, but they are just strong enough to keep you coming back for more, even while your thighs are expanding before your very eyes.”

Some experts theorize that this addictive property occurs as a way to keep infant cows nursing—and we all know you’re not a baby cow!

No cow chooses to be tortured for cheese or killed for beef, but you can choose to go vegan right now.

Let PETA help you and your loved ones go vegan today. Order a free vegan starter kit. We have all the resources necessary to support folks who want to ditch meat, eggs, and dairy. You can make a real difference and save nearly 200 animals a year simply by not eating them!