Diary Industry - Standard Breeding Practices
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM ALV Animal Liberation Victoria
February 2020

In the dairy and beef industries, both males and females are sexually assaulted by methods referred to as standard industry practices to force pregnancies to produce more 'products.'

Dairy cows are routinely artificially impregnated and kept in a relentless cycle of pregnancy, birthing and milk production, until they are eventually slaughtered. note note

Many suffer chronic mastitis, lameness, severe liver damage and painful digestive disorders.

Male calves and surplus females are reared for veal or immediately slaughtered. Millions of cows and their calves are killed every year so humans can consume dairy products.

Breeding: Semen Extraction

Farmed cows, and specifically, almost all cows exploited in the dairy industry, are forcibly impregnated.

In order to breed calves that are of the ‘highest quality’, only specific bulls are used for breeding. The semen that is inserted into female cows is taken from bulls through means such as ‘electro-ejaculation’.

This exploitative method involves forcing a probe into the rectum of a bull which stimulates him until he involuntarily ejaculates.

One ‘straw’ of semen to be forced into a cow’s uterus can be sold for over $90. When bulls are no longer profiting farmers with their semen, they are generally slaughtered.

Breeding: Artificial Insemination

Artificial insemination (AI) exploits the sexual organs of a female cow, and in practical terms, means forcing a fist into the anus of a cow and inserting a rod with semen into her uterus, through her vagina.

From an industry reference for farmers:

‘Although not part of the female genital tract, the rectum...is an important organ for you to become familiar with because your arm inside the cow will be working through this thin-walled tube...

...Again, the anus is stretchable, hence, your hand and arm can easily slip into the rectum. Circular muscle contractions move along the rectal wall toward the outside. When strong, these contractions may block your hand from moving forward and make it difficult to manipulate the genital organs through the rectal wall...

...To deposit semen at this location requires the use of a special device called Cassou pipette, or “AI gun”... The inseminator places his hand in the rectum and manipulates the reproductive tract so that the gun passes through the vagina, then it is manipulated through the cervical rings, and then held at the internal opening of the cervix for semen deposition.’

This process is repeated yearly in dairy cows, until their bodies can no longer stand it and they are sent to slaughter.

This process also occurs in the beef industry.

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