As a mother, I cannot imagine a more traumatic experience than having my newborn baby snatched from me at birth.
Like most people, I grew up thinking that milk was a harmless everyday
product, essential for a healthy diet. I was horrified when I discovered the
truth about the dairy industry: that cows are forcibly impregnated in order
to produce milk, that their calves are taken away from them at birth, and,
if the babies are born male, are nothing more than an unwanted by-product,
usually destined to be slaughtered for veal.
Mother cows will often cry out in distress for weeks after the loss of their
young. Despite their distress, instead of nursing their babies these cows
are hooked up to milking machines several times a day, often causing painful
swelling & bleeding of their udders (a legally allowable amount of pus often
remains present in milk when it reaches consumers). This cruel cycle is
repeated year after year, until the ‘spent’ cows’ overworked, exhausted
bodies no longer produce profitable milk levels, and they are sent for
slaughter, to become low-grade hamburgers or dog food. (A dairy cow
typically lives 4 to 5 years as opposed to 20 years naturally).
As a mother, I cannot imagine a more traumatic experience than having my
newborn baby snatched from me at birth. I cannot imagine a greater violation
than somebody stealing and killing my baby, so that they can sell my breast
milk. So now, when I think about milk, falsely advertised with images of
contented cows grazing on idyllic pastures, this ‘harmless’ everyday item
for sale in every shop, on every corner, of every street, in every city, in
every country, around the world, I find myself asking: ‘Why are humans so
addicted to drinking breast milk stolen from murdered babies?’
I often wonder how many millions of cows have been condemned to this
miserable existence. And why? So that we can have ice cream? Yoghurt?
Cheese? None of these are things that we actually need (but if we do want
them, there are dairy-free alternatives); in fact there’s growing research
to suggest that cow’s milk is actually quite harmful to our health.
To me, milk represents a brutal separation of mother and child, and a sad
reminder of the way we humans needlessly torment so many living creatures on
this earth with such casual indifference. All so we can keep on taking what
isn’t ours to take.
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
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0 rodents
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0 buffaloes
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0 donkeys and mules
0 camels / camelids