Why Was Joaquin Phoenix Talking about Cows During His Oscar Speech?
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM David Jack James
February 2020

It’s possible that you haven’t been made aware of the inherent cruelty and violence of the dairy industry. In his Oscar speech, you heard Joaquin Phoenix make a reference to stealing a baby from a cow, and her “unmistakable cries of anguish.” What’s that all about? Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the dairy industry....

Now that you know, will you please make compassionate choices that are consistent with who you really are?

Okay...maybe you really don’t know what happens to cows in the dairy industry. It’s possible that you haven’t been made aware of the inherent cruelty and violence of the dairy industry. In his Oscar speech, you heard Joaquin Phoenix make a reference to stealing a baby from a cow, and her “unmistakable cries of anguish.” What’s that all about? Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the dairy industry...

HAVE YOU EVER MET A COW?
Cows are the gentle giants of the world. Cows are sweet and docile, and they and have no instinct to harm, which is why they are easily exploited by humans. They are very intelligent and emotional. They like to cuddle, and they can form tight bonds with each other, humans, and other animals. Cows are emotional beings, capable of love, affection, and a wide range of emotions. They are sentient individuals with central nervous systems and full subjective awareness. They seek attention and affection, bond with other animals, care about their babies, feel emotions, can experience pain and suffering, and want to live—just like you and your companion animals.

THE MISERABLE LIFE OF A DAIRY COW
The indisputable purpose of the dairy industry is stealing mammary secretions from babies and selling that milk (and the cows themselves) for profit. Yes, it’s all about MONEY. Like all mammals, cows must be pregnant to produce milk. Milk isn’t created without a baby to drink it. But on dairy farms, baby cows are prevented from drinking their mothers’ milk, so that it can be sold to humans. Try to imagine what your life would be like if you were a dairy cow being exploited for your bodily secretions, hooked up to machines, forcibly impregnated over and over again while your babies are taken away from you, imprisoned in misery until the day that you are sold to the meat industry to be slaughtered because you stop producing milk at a profitable rate. Yes, that is the dairy industry in a nutshell.

MOTHER COWS DO CRY IN ANGUISH
When a calf is taken away from his or her mother, she will scream and cry for hours or even days because she wants to bond with her baby. Calves are removed almost immediately from their mothers, which is devastating for her and her baby. The separation occurs quickly because bonding would make separation even more difficult later and could affect the mother’s milk production, which is the dairy industry’s only concern—because it’s all about money. The calves are denied their mothers’ milk and fed formula instead so that the milk product isn’t “wasted.” Cows are not milk-making machines. They are sentient beings with central nervous systems and brains—just like you and your companion animals—which means that they have full self-awareness and can experience emotions, and pain and suffering. Please think about these cows and ask yourself if stealing and consuming mammary secretions from babies who are slaughtered along with their mothers...is who you really are.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BABIES?
The male calves obviously can’t produce milk, which is why the dairy farmers kill them right away, or they shackle these babies inside crates all alone, where they will spend a few months until they are slaughtered for veal. The impulse to suckle is so strong in baby calves that they will desperately try to suckle each other’s ears and faces when they are within reach, or even on the fingers of the workers on the farms and in the slaughterhouses. The female calves are destined to become tortured milking machines themselves, which usually entails about four years of misery, during which they are forcibly impregnated over again to keep the milk flowing. They give birth, lose calves over and over again, and are hooked up to machines, until eventually, their worn-out bodies collapse, and then they are ultimately sent to slaughter. These are the simple facts of the dairy industry. Go ahead: Ask a dairy farmer!

THE SPIKED NOSE RING: THE CRUELEST OF THE CRUEL
If dairy farmers tell you that the mothers and babies are not separated, that’s because they are lying, or because they use the spiked nose ring, a standard device used in the dairy industry (on small dairy farms too). The reason they insert these cruel devices into a calf’s nose is so that the spikes will poke the mother cow when a calf tries to suckle on her udders. The mother rejects the calf because of the spikes. But WHY does the dairy industry inflict this cruelty on babies and mothers? So that they can (truthfully) say that they don’t separate babies from mothers! They aren’t separated, but they can’t nurse or bond! The mammary secretions intended for the babies are stolen for humans to consume, so that the dairy industry can profit from animal exploitation and cruelty! Imagine the torture of babies trying to nurse from their mothers, and being unable to do so because of this device, all so that bovine mammary secretions (actual baby growth formula) can be stolen for humans to consume.

WHAT IS MILK?
Milk is maternal lactating secretion produced by the mammary glands of mammals who have given birth. Milk, quite simply, is a short-term nutrient for newborns. All mammals produce milk when they have babies. The milk is biologically designed for babies of specific species: For example, dog milk is for baby dogs, rat milk is for baby rats, elephant milk is for baby elephants, and human milk is for baby humans. Milk is baby growth formula, and contains hormones, proteins, fats, minerals, etc. for an infant of a particular species. Cow milk is perfectly designed to turn a 100-pound calf into a 2,000-pound cow. Like all mothers’ milk, it is filled with hormones, proteins, growth factors, fat, and cholesterol. Additionally, cow milk contains millions of pus cells, blood, antibiotics, steroids, bacteria, pathogens, and acidic proteins (which leech minerals and calcium from human bones). Over 80% of the protein in cow milk is casein, which is also used as an ingredient in some paints, glues, and, oh yes...cheese.

WHY DO HUMANS CONSUME COW MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS?
Because they’ve been told that they must! Dairy farmers, the animal agriculture industry, the mainstream media, the government, and even the healthcare industry have successfully used propaganda to convince most humans that stealing and consuming bovine mammary secretions is healthy, necessary, natural, and completely normal behavior—because there is MONEY to be made by exploiting and torturing cows. Yes, it’s all about money. Would you drink cat milk? Giraffe milk? Orangutan milk? That’s crazy, right?! Would you drink human breast milk if a pregnant woman squeezed you a glass? Would you eat cheese or ice cream made from human breast milk? Gross, right?! But think about that: You won’t consume the milk of your own species, but you think it’s totally normal to consume bovine bodily fluids as an adult? Drinking the mammary secretions of another species is not natural or normal. Mammary secretions are intended for the babies of specific animals. Perhaps you believe that this behavior is normal because you’ve been told that it is normal since you were a child? Why would an intelligent, rational human adult consume bovine mammary secretions, paying the dairy industry to exploit, torture, and ultimately slaughter cows?

YOU’RE BREASTFEEDING FROM A COW BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN DUPED BY CORPORATE PROPAGANDA?
Yes! Think about it. Isn’t it fundamentally gross and crazy to consume the mammary secretions of another species, especially as an adult? And from a cow rather than another human? Most of us were brainwashed by corporate propaganda. It’s really all about exploiting defenseless animals for money. The dairy industry floods our schools with propaganda, saturates the media with deceptive ads, and pays off politicians with campaign contributions (which results in taxpayer subsidies and very little oversight of what happens to these animals). Aren’t you irritated that you’ve been duped all of these years by corporate propaganda to engage in a behavior as bizarre as consuming another species’ mammary secretions—bovine growth formula stolen from baby cows? You are literally consuming bodily secretions intended for a baby, and you think that is completely normal and natural?!

PLEASE MAKE COMPASSIONATE CHOICES
Yes, of course consuming dairy is your choice. But why would you choose suffering and violence when you can choose peace and compassion? Are the fleeting taste sensations of bovine bodily secretions really that important to you, when there are so many nutritious and delicious alternatives that don’t come from the suffering and slaughter of emotional beings? Please think about your food choices and ask yourself if you are being ethical and compassionate, and if causing pain and suffering and slaughter for nothing more than momentary, trivial taste pleasure...is who you really are. There is no biological requirement for humans to consume animals or their bodily secretions. Plant-based alternatives are everywhere now, and they are healthy and delicious! It just takes a little extra time to look for non-dairy ice cream, beverages, yogurt, cheese, butter, etc.

WHO YOU REALLY ARE
Please think about what you support when you purchase anything with cow milk in it, and start making ethical and compassionate and rational choices! Why would you want to fund an industry that harms and kills animals for mammary secretions that aren’t for you and that you don’t need, especially when there is an abundance of alternative products that taste the same and are healthier for you?! The choice to continue supporting the dairy industry is a conscious decision to harm, exploit, and kill others for pleasure and self-indulgence—simply because you like the way something tastes. Is that who you really are? A measure of human morality is how we treat the innocent and helpless. All sentient beings have the right to experience the nurturing love of their mothers, and to live free from exploitation, harm, and slaughter by humans—because unlike other animals, humans can behave morally, think rationally, and live happy and healthy lives without consuming animals or their bodily secretions. Going vegan is simply about choosing peace and compassion, instead of suffering and violence.

So...if you didn’t understand why Joaquin Phoenix mentioned cows in his Oscar speech...now you do. Now that you know, will you please make compassionate choices that are consistent with who you really are?

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