Yes, dairy cows are slaughtered for their meat
Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life
Posted by Eric @ 2:34 PM
The main thing I find shocking about this Washington Post article on cruelty at a California slaughterhouse is that some people still think cows are not harmed in dairy production. Everything else about the story is only a surprise to people who aren’t paying attention (like those people who ask why you’re vegan and then, after a brief pause, say, “Nevermind, I don’t want to know.”)
Putting aside for a moment that so many of us have been brainwashed into believing we need to imbibe the mammary secretions of another species in order to be healthy (secretions intended for calves, not humans, mind you), there are some who justify consuming cheese and so forth because they think you don’t have to kill cows to produce milk or other dairy products.
Putting aside also that the theft of calves’ milk from their mothers is generally a very cruel and horrific experience to behold in its own right, and that the abduction of calves from their mothers after less than 72 hours is traumatizing to both parties (especially the calf, who is typically treated worse than his mother for an even shorter period of time before being killed and sold as veal)…
Putting all that aside, after a cow’s “productivity” decreases to the point that she is no longer a valued profit center (at 4-5 years, well short of her total lifespan), she is crammed into a transport truck with other cows and shipped hundreds and hundreds of miles to a place like this (video), where she is killed and chopped up into products like hamburger, so that the “producer” can squeeze every last cent out of her. When you treat living beings as things–as commodities–cruelty is not only inevitable, it is inseparable. The only way to avoid contributing to this suffering is to take the exploitation out of your own choices by going vegan.
There are, as in many cases these days, comments below the article. There you can read with incomprehension the sheer inhumanity with which some people regard nonhuman animals and, should you choose to register, weigh in with your own thoughts as to the remedy for this appalling human activity.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 1:27 am
This story broke my heart.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I have been around the Dairy industry for years even though I do not own a dairy.The cows are treated very well and are fed on time every day the very best hay, grain and fibers. You should see the cows when it is time to get milked, they love to go to the dairy barn to get milked.
Yes, after they drop in productivity they are sold for beef. This helps people with cheaper beef prices than if it were all raised at feed lots. Now about the calves,I have seen a lot of calves and I haven’t seen a long term effect of this trauma you talk about as they seem to be running and jumping with the rest of the calves as soon as the are in the same pens. The calves are treated well and if they get sick are given care to help them get well.Yes, the dairies have hospital pins for just that purpose. The farmer doesn’t like to lose calves because he would have to pay 2000.00 or more to buy an adult, well maybe 1300.00 now that prices are down.
I suppose one could make the argument that it hurts the plant when you take its fruit, or that you only raise the plant in order to harvest it at a later date making its farming just as inhumane. I mean if cows are people too, maybe plants also feel pain.It really dosen’t matter because people have drank milk from the beginning of time and will eat meat till the end of time.I suppose sometime soon someone will try to make a study on if plants are stressed or feel pain. I am sure someone already feels that way.
You cry babies need to get a life.
Eating meat or not eating meat dosen’t make you any better or worse.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:11 am
WHHHOOOA!!! BUDDY!!!
Just because its a long time industry and habit doesn’t mean you can remove it from morals!
The reason most vegans don’t want to be apart of the blood shed involved in the meat industry is not because they are ‘cry babies’, its because they open their eyes and see the obvious similarities in the nervous system between a cow and a man. Try and tell a rational person that our nervous system is different enough to that of a cow and they’ll tell you your in denial!
There is no denying that a cow, or any animal, is different in certain aspects to a human. However,if a cow fears pain and death just like we do, then your a sick sadist to believe they are lesser enough to justify killing them for food. The consumption of meat and meat products is redundant! My friends and my self have been vegan for a year now and i have had no health problems and if anything, i’ve had an empowered immune system.
So don’t go calling vegans ‘cry babies’ when your the greedy baby who wont give up his bottle of milk!!!
March 4th, 2009 at 8:07 am
To craig.
Would you like to have your child taken away from you at birth? Of course not. The same goes for other species. A cow DOES NOT want her child stolen away from her after she goes through the stress of child birth. It pains me that you would even think otherwise. How did you become so insensitive?
And according to Einstein being a vegetarian does make you a better person. I think I will trust his judgment rather than yours.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. ~Albert Einstein
August 19th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
You are all psycho.
Ooh look, hawk with talons poked through a live pidgeon and… oop, ripped its head off.
Have you watched animals die? Like, really watched. Not like when I nail a deer in a double-lung shot and it suffocates to death in about 30 seconds and collapses in the slow, waning pain of death; but like when a bear rips its chest open, tears out a vital organ, and starts chewing on a chunk of its leg while it lay there dying from a gut injury for a half hour with every nerve in its body screaming in pain.
In general we take pretty decent care of animals, the final slaughter is often stressful and leads to a quick and painless death. I can shoot a deer with a bow and it’ll die in half a minute; or you can hit the cow with a hammer or quick decapitate it and it dies instantly, somewhat confused about why it’s being hauled around.
The most natural course is to kill them in the most painful, bloody, violent method possible.