Even if it's raised on a small farm, doesn't milking it repeatedly cause mastitis and also collecting the milk makes it necessary to separate the calf and the mother? So is it ever possible to have a dairy operation that doesn't abuse the cows?
Anonymous
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well according to PETA the dairy cows have to keep popping out calves so they keep producing milk.
This is false. they produce one calf and never stop lactating. If you milk them daily, they produce milk their whole life. If you don't milk them, their udders swell and get infected (both are excruciating), so you have to continue to milk them once they start lactating. this is also why they must live on farms and cannot be let into the wild. Usually their first (and only) calf is raised to adulthood for slaughter or the dairy industry, and sometimes to breed. veal is made from deformed calves or veal farms, and the PETA statistic of travelling thousands of miles over the course of a month is also false. Veal is slaughtered locally.
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No, you are talking a load of rubbish. The cows are milked twice a day (morning and evening) to make them more comfortable. The cows are not feeding calves while giving milk.They have been weaned off the milk or there wouldn't be enough milk to go round. When humans breast feed babies it doesn't cause mastitis in every woman. You can get it at anytime (my mum got it at the age of 43 which was 11 years after having her last baby. If they are separated it is only for a short period and the calf doesn't suffer.
Anonymous
It does depend on the setup of the farm, many farms try to avoid mastitis due to it adding vetinary cost & failing inspections of the milk quality or cow welfare. This is especially the case with sole traders.
The calf and mother are seperated that is a fact regardless of operation unless the cow is going to become another dairy cow, the dairy cow will also be ssent to slaughter when its milk quality or quantity drops below profitable yields. If this constitutes abuse to you then avoid milk if it doesnt sit with your ethical decisions.
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1. There are a lot more important things to worry about than the abuse of cows by being milked.
2. If God or whatever supernatural deity you believe in put milk in cows, and cows on earth wouldn't it make sense to take advantage of that.
3. The cows are only milked once a day, because if they are milked more than that they can die, therefore they don't get mastitis; if they do not for that reason.
4. The cows don't know that they are separated from their calves, they are cows.
5. Yes, if you go by your logic you could have a dairy operation that abuses the use of goats for the same reason.
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Actually, you are what shrinkologists call 'projecting'.
Who knows what a cow or calf thinks when separated from their parent/child? Just because us humans have emotions (usually negative) when someone takes our kid doesn't mean that animals do.
I raise chickens & the mothers seem to WANT to permanently get away from their kids when the kids are about a month old. They just go run off & do their own thing & no longer stick around the chicks like they use to. I had one mother who use to escape the pen while her 5 kids squawked, trying to get to her. I think as soon as the mother knows the chicks don't need her heat anymore, she wants her freedom.
I've also seen mother cats run off soon after their cats were weaned. I've even seen ma cats swipe at their kids when they tried to nurse off her after a certain time period, trying to wean them herself.
Also, milking machines have cut down the incidence of mastitis greatly. The disease occured much more frequently when people hand-milked (bacteria from the hands, you know).
Trust me, for the sake of cows in the U.S., it is much better than the alternative.
I mean really, what would be the purpose of cattle if they didn't provide us nourishment? They would just be $$ drainers & thus become extinct, like the Dodo bird & the draft horse.