How do vegetarians justify drinking milk?!
How do vegetarians justify drinking milk?
When the dairy industry has such close connections to the veal industry?
Cows have to be calved on a regular basis in order for cows to continue to produce milk. Those calves are then killed to produce veal.
So why is drinking milk any different from eating meat?
Answers:
'tis a good question.
by definition, veggies don't eat meat, fish, poultry or slaughter by-products. So, milk drinkers can call them selves veggies. Whether the defintion needs changing is another matter.
The veal industry in now largly gone in many coutries. I live in the farming community in the UK and its true that half of the calves born to milk producing cows are killed within the first week of birth. Just go to any dairy farm and you can see them in pens waiting for the bullet.
Knowing that cows are fed hormone enhanced food, kept pregnant too often to be natural, bribe fed food depending on thier milk yield, are expected to produce 60 lites a day ( where the natural is 10 lites ) and are killed age 8 ( rather than the natural 15 years ) I do find it a bit odd that veggies drink milk.
i see it all at our local dairy carousel...its just a milk factory.
if you drink milk, you are payng for death, torture, pain and cruelty. If you're happy with that, carry on, i'm not here to change your mind. But be honest with yourselves and admit this is what you pay for.
nneave is wrong. Dairy cows are just not suitable for beef. Dairy cows simply do not have enough body muscle on them.
Ashley ( below ) I live in the middle of the dairy community, i see hundreds of bull calves penned up and the gunman comes in once a week to dispatch them..Its not a lie, i see it with my own eyes. Afactory farm would not put up with the blood-mess of slitting throats.
Source(s):
me: live in the middle of it all and see it first hand, god help all those animals. I don't blame the farmers, I blame the consumers for buying the stuff on price rather than ethics.
Well, it's either through ignorance that they drink milk, or because they choose not to eat meat for a reason other than sympathy to animals. I have a friend who doesn't like meat.
yessssssss levellllllllll 4444444444444444
Because you dont have to kill an animal to get it.
I'm not a vegatarian, but I don't eat meat, (I do eat fish), and I must agree I have trouble with milk. I feel guilty when I drink it because I know how much the cows suffer having to constantly breed and then having their babies taken away. They also have very sore, ulcerated udders and are kept in cramped conditions. Also, their udders sometimes become so big that their legs begin to buckle.
I admit I am a bit of a hypercrit not eating meat and still drinking milk and I can't really justify it. I do try and get organic milk as I imagine it can't be as bad for the cows.
because cows are vegetarians????
SOYA MILK OR MARVEL.
MIlk is a by product of an animal and no animal dies from or by producing milk.
You don't have the whole story dear. There is a great big wolrd of information out there, so I would start researching on your own rather than getting spoon fed. Milking a cow does not equal veal production. That leap is nonsense.
id like to know if any of them actually own a pair of leather shoes, gloves, or a leather coat? i bet you a pound , to a penny to a bucket of S**T they do?
.As a vegetarian myself, it cannot be justified, I only have soya milk
LOL good question i like a big Rare JUICY steak myself!!!
It is a fact that nearly all of the beef on our table (UK) is is a by product of the dairy industry. There is no profit in Beef farming. Anyone who says they drink milk causes the death of cattle due to over production of calves.
Personally I eat beef and drink milk so I'm happy with it.
As for leather goods, animals in the UK are rarely killed for the leather as skins are virtually worthless until treated.
cows will continue to produce milk as long as they are being milked. they are given hormones to produce more. they aren't all calved. and if all calves were made into veal, there would be no more cows
When I was growing up my uncle had a cow which produce 6 gallons a day (no hormones). I thought it was gross because all we did was remove the fat which floated to the top, refrigerated the milk and drank it without being pastuerized. Itwas like drinking heavy cream.
Not all vegetarians drink milk. Only lacto and ovo-lacto vegetarians do so. Ovo-vegetarians and vegans do not. Also, not all vegetarians become vegetarian because they do not wish to harm animals. Some do so for their faith. Some do so for cultural reasons. Some do so for health reasons. Some do so for environmental reasons. Some simply do not like the taste of meat. There are a whole range of reasons.
As evidenced by other "answers" to your question, a lot of people don't make the connection of milk to veal. People narrow their gaze to see only that the actual dairy cow isn't being killed when milk is taken. Unlike you, they don't realize that cows don't just make milk, that a calf has to be created. The calf is the life that's slaughtered in order to provide dairy.
So, drinking milk isn't really all that different from eating meat, if you're a vegetarian for ethical reasons. If you're in it for the health, then organic dairy is free of a lot of he gunk in non-organic dairy.
its simply an excuse......only difference taht you dont have to kill the animal. Infact one of my friend says who is a vegie... cows just cant store up so much milk........so we a kinda help them out! how stupid.
Its the same........no difference
Never even thought about that , this site is very informative.
Vegetarian for 17 years but have always had milk. Time to knock that one on the head thank you for opening my eyes.
First of all, let me clear up some confusion here. Actually, almost 100% of calves born to milk producing cows are killed within the first week of birth. And as far as them waiting for a bullet, that is a lie. Most calves are brutally murdered by having their throats slit, etc..
Hi, vegan, not just vegetarian, but since I used to be lacto-ovo vegetarian I know a good many reasons. I'd ask you, tuthutop, to read this anyway though it's lengthy, but other answerers can scroll past if it's too long.
1. The most obvious one is that meat is *not* the same as milk, and by modern definition vegetarian only excludes meat (which is why the Vegan Society branched off from the Vegetarian Society in the first place), even though *we* are aware the dairy industry supports the meat industry. Vegetarians are still only supporting them indirectly (1 step away) rather than directly. How many vegans buy Silk soymilk, which is produced by Dean Foods, one of the largest dairy distributors in the world (2 steps away from the meat industry)? Both vegans and vegetarians for moral reasons are trying to avoid killing and harming animals, vegans taking it further though we still can't totally avoid distant support (example: American vegans' taxes going towards subsidizing the price of beef). Being vegetarian is still a large step in and of itself.
2. Some vegetarians aren't doing it for moral reasons, but for their health, personal dislike of meat, religion, etc, obviously.
3. Speaking of religion, Vaisnavas believe that blessing milk and then consuming it brings a multitude of blessings to the cow that gave the milk, so many will consume milk because they earnestly believe they are giving the cow a chance at a better life in the future. Most of the lacto-vegetarians I know currently are Vaisnavas, and there's no convincing them to go vegan (unless they already are) because of their extremely fervent beliefs combined with their love of cows.
4. Sometimes it is ignorance and denial, and I don't say this in a mean way, but that the cruelty of the dairy industry is rarely talked about, except in PETA propaganda which is usually pretty in-your-face. So it's very easy to ignore or dismiss the few pieces of information you do hear, because the misinformation and anti-vegan arguments are way more common - and people want to deny this anyway, because dairy and eggs are very addictive, quite prevalent in foods, and tasty. It took me forever to come around myself, and I don't think I'm any smarter or compassionate as a vegan than I was before, I just eventually won myself over. It seems obvious to vegans because we've already learned it and we can't unlearn it - even if we stop being vegan we still remember what we knew.
5. Convenience - It's much easier to be vegetarian than vegan, especially when eating out. And some people do not have good access to vegan food, like in areas where fresh/frozen produce is prohibitively expensive, canned veggies are mid-range price but unhealthy and nasty (and often canned with chicken broth, pork bits, etc.), but Mac and Cheese is on sale for 2 for $1 (I've previously lived in places like this on limited funds - cheesy macaroni, cheese enchiladas, potatoes, and ramen were the cheapest vegetarian foods). Or countries where the weather does not permit consistent produce and it's hard enough to be vegetarian. Another part of convenience is that many vegetarians become vegan eventually, and it is much, much easier to be vegetarian for a while in the transition (whether for a month or many years) rather than go vegan overnight.
6. Health issues - rarely but not unheard of, some people have tried living vegan but have compounded allergies or other difficulties that result in "failure to thrive" so they go back to eating some dairy (and/or eggs). Maybe with careful planning and the help of a nutritionist they could go back to being vegan, but since Western medicine at least is not supportive even of healthy vegans, you can imagine how difficult it is for someone with many severe food allergies, a chronic illness, or an already restricted diet for medical reasons to find help going vegan.
7. Dairy doesn't necessarily mean veal in all countries - in India it used to be that generally someone with a cow would not even think of killing her calf. The calf would stay with the cow, the people would treat the cow as their own mother (either letting her roam totally free or building a barn with as much comfort and space as their own house), the calf drinks its fill, and the people take only the remainder (if the cow holds still and lets them). Sadly, this attitude is becoming less common as India becomes more Westernized, but had I lived in those circumstances, I would probably be vegetarian and not vegan, as it wouldn't have occurred to me as readily as it did after seeing the extreme abuse in Western countries.
It's for several of these reasons that I find it counterproductive (and, not very nice) to be condescending or demanding of vegetarians, when they are already doing a lot, on the right track, etc. All we can do as vegans is make the path easier for others, as currently it takes both a lot of willpower, and being in the right situation(s) to do it practically. We can tactfully provide information without being pushy, cook food for others, create demand for vegan products (including meat and dairy analogs), support our vegan restaurants, etc. and many people will transition naturally on their own as a result. You won't believe how many of my friends stopped drinking milk just by me introducing them to tasty non-dairy milks - they lost the taste for cow milk! Thanks for doing your part, tuthutop. :)
Because they don't have to support it morally if they see nothing wrong with killing cows. Cows are no longer like any other animal on earth, they have been bred and bred until the traits that humans want in them are so pronounced that they are a completely new creature not seen anywhere in nature. They are a human construct and it is not immoral to destroy what one has created.
Actually there are only two ways to view morallity, it's either objective or subjective. Objective reality is called religion, most religions (christianity, islam, judaism, catholocism, etc.) not only allow the eating of cow, but specifically mention that they are good to be eaten. There are, to my knowledge, only two religious groups that prohibit eating beef, the Dharmic religions like hinduism (and in many of those it's a suggestion, not a law,) Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. I know there are some christian sub-sets that suggest a vegetarian lifestyle, like seventh day adventists, but I know of no other religions that proclude it completely.
The only other choice is subjective morallity, or personal morallity, which says that what I find moral may or may not be moral for you. In other words, since they are not doing any harm to any other PERSON they are MORALLY justified in doing whatever they want to do, and that you would be morally wrong to deny them anything that they want, including milk.
Great question...but you'll have to ask someone else. I drink rice milk for the very reasons you stated in your question!
Its vegans who won't have anything that came from an animal. Vegetarians won't eat anything thats to do with meat. They still eat cheese and eggs and have milk beacuse an animal isn't killed for it. A veal farm and a milk farm are totally different. Check your facts first
there is no veal production in uk as it is not finacially vibie.50% + of dairy cows are breed to beef bulls to produce high quality beef .sexed semen is used to produce female only calves as dairy repacements so the uk has no call to kill calves for veal
I agree with you here.
I became a vegetarian at 7 but continued to eat eggs and honey and drink milk till I was 16.Then I learned about the amount of cruelty involved in the production of these 3 things and so I turned vegan.
So all the vegetarians who said nothing suffers or dies because of the dairy industry-do a LOT more research!
I don't drink milk...yucky! I haven't had milk for well over 20 yrs. I can't help but thinking that that is something made for a calf by its mother. Not to mention all that a poor milk cow has to go through. Also, the fact that there is blood and pus in the milk, from infected udders....
It's kinda like.... well, what if as a child your mom couldn't breast feed you because she was giving the breast milk made for you to the neighbors cat or something... It's just not right, and it's not how nature intended it...
simple.
some people (like me) can't go vegan all of a sudden.
we need to transition.