Does the Dairy industry cause suffering?!
I don't know much about it.
What happens to the cows? etc etc
I just want your opinion.
Thanks!! h.h :-)
Answers: Please don't post rude or nasty comments, I genuinely want to know why everyone thinks it's so cruel.
I don't know much about it.
What happens to the cows? etc etc
I just want your opinion.
Thanks!! h.h :-)
Ethical impacts of intensive dairy farming:
Drinking milk does contruibute to unnessary death and suffering. Just like humans cows only lactate a few months after birth. For cows to produce a constant supply of milk they must be continually artificially ensiminated and give birth. Their babies are taken away from them soon after they are born. If they are male they will be trapped in veal crates, fed an anemic diet and confined in darkness and eventually killed. If they are female they will go on to also be dairy cows (or more correctly milk machines). This seperation causes distress to both mother and calf. Drinking milk supports the veal industry. Cows are also pumped with hormones and antibiotics to increase milk production. This often leads to mastitius, a painful infection of the udders. Constant milk production leaches calcium from cow's bones leaving them eventually lame or crippled.
If you really can't live without dairy try buying from certified free range dairy farmers. But everyone has to make their own decion in the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr-EyIaXA...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7cGLywGS...
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Environmental impacts of intensive dairy farming:
A single cow produces approximately 120 pounds of manure per day, in other words the amount of waste proced by 1 cow = 20-40 humans. That means each farm produces thousand of litres of waste effluent into environment. It pollutes our soil, water tables and streams. Cows also produce a lot of gasses, especially methane. Methane is 4 times more potent and CO2 in terms of green house emission. Cows are treated like milk machines to increase productivity. Environmentally speaking cows are also very inefficient at converting foodstuffs into milk. Only a small percentage of the food goes towards milk production. Most of the energy goes towards metabolic activity and simply staying alive. The dairy industry is also a huge burden on water resources.
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[edit]: JAM you may work or be familiar with smaller scale dairy farms. Most milk is produced in large scale intensive farming facilities, they process not hundreds but thousands of cows. And it is simply physically impossible to “love each and every one of their cows”. They are milked and fed by automatic machines… where’s the love? Not nonsense it's the truth. I'm not ignorant I know there are two sides to the story. But the overwhelming majority of dairy is produced in intensive farming facilities. Maybe you should consider doing some research, before you call my answer nonsense.
Naive and stupid! Report It
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