A TRUE STORY ABOUT LIFE ON A DAIRY FARM – WHY I PREFER VEGAN TO VEGETARIAN
According to a Californian industry report, the natural lifespan of a dairy cow is approximately 15–25 years, however dairy cows are rarely kept longer than five years prior to slaughter.
Why the dairy industry cannot ethically be supported. The direct females involved are not treated with respect, or with any kind regard for their physical well-being, they do not get to live normal lives in respect to their bodies, behaviors or their natural ecosystem. They are slaughtered as soon as they cannot deliver any more milk. The non-direct animals (males) suffer the consequences of being male and barely even get the chance to live, unwanted byproducts to be done away with as soon as possible so money doesn’t have to be spent on feeding them. What goes on in the killing sheds after they leave the dairy farm, I cannot say.
I did however milk cows for three weeks on a large NZ Dairy Farm in 2006, as part of my backpacking, and this is a bit of what I saw first-hand. Keep in mind that I was most certainly shielded from what they would have considered the more ‘gory aspects’, as it was common practice for them to employ backpackers for the really busy calving and milking season.
I remember this one male new-born male calf who was just a couple of days old. I had to beg for them to let me give him a drink of milk after he had been left out in the cold for two days starving because the bobby van hadn’t turned up and they didn’t want to waste milk on him. He was tiny and scared and thirsty, running up to people and trying to drink from them. He wasn’t tied up because he was trying to stay near his mother who was on the other side of the fence. We had two large vats on site filled with milk and they wouldn’t let me touch it. Nor would they let him drink with the other female calves in the pens right near him. He could smell ‘milk’ all around him, as he was right near the milking shed, and it would have been driving him crazy.
It was explained to me that the initial milk that the cow gives after birth is called ‘colostrum’, it is packed full of nutrients as it is intended as calf’s first drink, however because of its high nutrients and creaminess this milk is sold for a higher price than the regular milk that follows and so the calf has to be taken away before it has a chance to drink it. It was also explained to me that this calf was intended for the bobby van and so he didn’t need to drink, and he would just waste milk that could be sold.
I couldn’t believe they could be so heartless that he was going to go to his grave without even having one drink, in his whole pitiful short existence. His mother cried for days…she was separated from him from the first moment he was born, and put straight into the milking shed with her placental juices still dripping. Eventually when I had hassled them enough and was obviously upset by his treatment I was given permission to fill a bottle up from the vat and give him a drink. Some random worker took pity on him and took him home. Though now I think it about that was highly likely a smokescreen to placate me. What its final fate was…probably too obvious. The bodies of other calves that hadn’t made it through the birthing process were simply piled up in a corner.
That milk its mother had been so busy producing for its calf, never made it for its intended purpose and was instead sold for profit, her calf went hungry and was shipped off to an unknown fate because it was male and couldn’t be used as a milking cow. This milk was sold to both meateaters and vegetarians.
I also worked for a time in the ‘medical shed’, where we treated cows for the bacterial infection in their teats called Mastisis. It is painful for them, as they would kick while we were trying to squeeze the infected milk out and put creams on their teats to clear it up. I knew they were doing this with production in mind more than the ‘welfare side’, but just to back that thought up I just found a lovely statement from the University of California, School of Veterinary Medicine (http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-DA/INF-DA_MASTITIS101.HTML, 2010): “Clinical mastitis causes economic loss due to treatment costs, lost quarters, perhaps dying cows and most importantly, discarded milk”. Nice… I also remember the head guy there telling me, after I asked for medicine that I could put on one particular cow because she had a deep painful gash on her leg, that they didn’t have any. He told me they only spent money on the treatment of mastitis so they could get them back into the milking shed, not for other wounds that weren’t related to milking, unless it could kill them.
As a female as well who has had a child, I can only imagine how unnatural, uncomfortable and plain exhausting it would be to be continually pregnant or lactating.
At the time I remember knowing i wanted to give up milk and cheese but wasn’t sure how. A few years down the track, some wise vegans and the reality check that not eating dairy is the kindest and easiest thing I can do, I too have cut out all foods that use animals as their source, in any manner. I know the profit margin will always come first, and those animals do not belong there. They belong in the wild, living life as nature intended, with mothers and calves being able to unite, bond and sustain each other. I have been vegetarian but now really believe with all my heart that vegan is the only way we will end the suffering that occurs in the dairy industry, and which is just as callous as the slaughterhouse.
Thanks for reading – Sheree