The Dark Side of Dairy

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The Dark Side of Dairy

Please choose alternatives to dairy products

 

from http://www.milkmyths.org.uk/intro.php

 

Cows produce milk to feed their babies – just like humans. It flows

for the best part of a year and then stops. More milk requires more

babies. That's the reality of dairy farming – the visible, obvious

side of the industry. But there is another, cruel, much darker side

to dairy which few see much and even fewer know about.

 

Drinking milk is cruel - it's also unnatural. Only humans drink it

after weaning – and milk from a different species, at that. It's no

more natural than drinking badger's milk or cat's milk. Designed for

calves, many humans find milk hard to digest and the result is

allergies. Hormones in milk are linked to ovarian, breast and

prostate cancer, as well as juvenile-onset diabetes. The saturated

fat, cholesterol and animal protein it contains are linked to many

other diseases.

 

Despite relentless claims by the dairy industry, milk is neither the

only nor the best source of calcium and has little effect on bone

strength. Broccoli, spinach (cabbage), watercress, nuts, seeds, soya

and other plant foods are better and healthier sources.

 

 

Unnatural and cruel: The dairy industry separates calves from their

mothers after just a day or two.

 

Desperation

 

Despite the myth of contentment, a dairy cow is the hardest worked of

all farmed animals. She nurtures a growing baby inside her while

simultaneously producing milk - up to 120 pints a day. To keep the

flow going, she is forcibly impregnated every year and her babies are

taken away a day or two after birth – year, after year. Professor

John Webster describes the removal of the calf as the 'most

potentially distressing incident in the life of the dairy cow'.

 

" The dairy cow is exposed to more abnormal physiological demands than

any other farm animal. She is the supreme example of an overworked

mother. " Professor John Webster, Bristol University's Veterinary

Science Department

 

Separation

 

Cows produce milk for a reason. They are female mammals who need to

feed their young – just like us. And the process which makes it

happen is also the same –pregnancy, birth and suckling. No babies, no

milk! The final, cruel twist is that dairy cows are allowed to suckle

their babies for just a day or two, after which they are taken away.

The magical process of reproduction has been perverted – cows are no

longer seen as mothers producing food for their babies but milk

machines.

 

A dairy cow's milk begins to dry up nine to 12 months after giving

birth, when her calf would be weaned. This is bad economics so, to

keep the milk flowing, she is artificially inseminated two to three

months after giving birth. The result? A crushing double burden of

pregnancy and lactation for seven months out of every 12. It

inevitably takes its toll – excruciating mastitis (udder infection),

lameness, infertility and low milk yield. A quarter of all UK cows,

mostly under five years old, are killed every year - physically

exhausted.

 

Isolation

 

Female calves mostly follow in their mother's footsteps and replace

the cows who are killed each year. The first six to eight weeks of

their lives are usually spent in tiny stalls, making exercise and

socialising with other calves impossible. No mother's milk for them,

just commercial milk-replacer. At 15-months-old, artificial

insemination begins – as does their gruelling life as a milk machine.

 

Distortion

 

Her young would suckle five or six times a day but milking takes

place only twice. Up to 20 litres of milk can accumulate in her

udder, making it protrude between her hind legs. This distortion

results in an unnatural stance and lameness. Over half the UK herd

suffers this way every year but many animals go untreated because as

long as they produce milk, they are still profitable.

 

Destruction

 

Male calves can't produce milk. If they are dairy/beef crosses they

are sold to beef farms, with calves as young as seven-days-old

enduring long journeys to and from livestock markets. Around 40 per

cent of UK beef comes from the dairy herd.

 

Pure dairy males simply aren't 'beefy' enough and many are exported

to Continental veal farms, suffering terrifing journeys and

slaughtered at only a few months old. Others are simply shot in the

head shortly after birth, worthless by-products of milk production.

 

Incarceration

 

You see cows in the summer when they're at pasture. The other six or

seven months are spent indoors on hard concrete, adding to leg and

foot problems.

 

Many of today's dairy cows are now too big for the indoor cubicles

they inhabit, finding it difficult to lie down, rears protruding into

the slurry covered aisles. An unnatural diet of high protein feed can

release toxins into the bloodstream and cause inflammation of

sensitive foot tissues.

 

Contamination

 

Mastitis is excruciatingly painful and there are over one million

cases a year in the UK. Routine use of antibiotics has failed to

control it and milk from infected cows containing up to four hundred

million pus cells per litre can legally be sold for humans.

 

" There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life. It

was designed for calves, not humans, and we should all stop drinking

it today. " Dr Frank A. Oski, Former Director of Pediatrics, Johns

Hopkins University

 

Download and distribute the " The Dark Side of Dairy " leaflet by

clicking on this link

http://www.milkmyths.org.uk/pdfs/dairy_leaflet.pdf

 

Find out more about to live a dairy-free life at

http://www.milkmyths.org.uk/index.php