Dairy cattle - who's in your pint?
There are two types of commercially reared cattle – dairy and beef. The dairy industry is concerned with producing milk. Beef animals are bred to be turned into burgers, steaks and other meat products.
Just like human females, cows produce milk only after giving birth. To keep up the supply, they are kept in a constant cycle of being made pregnant and then having the baby taken away so that the milk meant for their calf can be bottled up for humans.
The industry-promoted image of Daisy amongst the buttercups has long been out of date. Now there is a new development: the ‘battery cow’. Under this ultra-intensive regime, many of the cows are kept inside sheds all year-round. Some may get out for periods during the summer months; many will never go outside at all.
Soon after birth, calves are taken away from their mothers, causing great distress for both. Some female calves will follow their mothers and join the dairy herd. Most dairy calves, however, are considered a waste by-product and are killed within a week or two for baby food, or so that parts of their stomach can be used to make rennet (an ingredient used in cheese).
Dairy cows are so over-milked that most suffer painful infection of the udders, which causes traces of pus and blood to leak into the milk. Cows naturally would live to up to 25 years. However, by 5 years old, animals used by the dairy industry will be too worn out to produce the quantities of milk required, and so they are killed for use in cheap meat products.
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Want to know more?
- Read The Suffering of Farmed Cattle section in adult site
