Mica von Turkovich
Compared to meat, dairy is so often seen as the lesser of two evils. But the reality is that there is horrific cruelty taking place every day on dairy farms.
Many people feel that milking cows is natural and even necessary, providing humans with essential nutrients. However, if more people were aware of what life on a modern dairy farm is really like, they might recognize it for the unnatural and inhumane practice that it is.
On industrial dairy farms, there are no cows grazing in green grasses, or friendly farmers milking them. On these farms, cows are not treated as living beings. They are milk-producing machines.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can demystify the dairy industry and spread the truth about what goes on behind barn doors.
1. "Cows don’t need to be pregnant to produce milk."
Like humans, cows must become pregnant and give birth for milk production to occur. On dairy farms, this is often done through artificial insemination. After nine months, a cow gives birth, only to be separated from her baby within hours so she can immediately begin producing milk for human consumption.
When a mother cow is separated from her baby, the trauma is almost too much for her and her baby to bear, causing extreme mental stress for the mother and long-term negative impacts on the calf’s development. They can often be heard calling out for one another for hours or days after separation. Heart-wrenching videos show mother cows chasing after the vehicles that are taking their babies away.
What’s even worse is that a mother cow will relive this nightmare again and again, for about five years, or until their bodies protest. Once they are no longer producing milk at an “acceptable” rate, they are slaughtered for meat.
2. "People have to consume dairy to get enough calcium."
Dairy was given its very own food group mainly due to the high levels of calcium found in milk and other dairy products. However, dairy is not the only adequate source of this nutrient. A single serving of kale has close to the same amount of calcium as a glass of milk. Pair that with other calcium-rich foods—such as seeds, nuts, beans, spinach, or broccoli—to easily meet your daily recommended calcium intake.
A serving of kale has almost as much calcium as a glass of milk.
The US Department of Health recommends that adults and children 9 years of age or older consume three 8-oz. servings of milk per day, or equivalent portions of dairy products, theoretically to help build and maintain strong bones. But according to a 2020 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, there are adverse effects from consuming so much dairy. A study of nearly 100,000 adults found that each additional glass of milk consumed in adolescence was associated with a 9% higher risk of hip fracture in men. In some cases, milk consumption could increase the risk of fractures later in life—which is exactly what the milk industry claims dairy intake will help to avoid.
3. "Cows are dumb."
Some people justify the inhumane treatment taking place on dairy farms by claiming that cows are dumb; however, this is not the case. Cows are bright, emotional, and social beings.
Cows rely on all five senses and are affected by what they see, hear, taste, smell, and feel on dairy farms and in slaughterhouses. Being incredibly social creatures, they develop bonds with other cows and even show signs of empathy. Can you imagine the fear and horror of witnessing the deaths of their friends shortly before they meet the same fate?
Mother cows are extremely protective of their calves.
Research has shown that we can determine whether a cow is experiencing fear or anxiety based on the amount of white in its eyes. When a mother cow is taken from her baby, the white of her eyes increases dramatically. Mother cows display a strong sense of maternal protectiveness over their calves. In one study, which evaluated maternal protective behavior, researchers observed mother cows to see how they would respond to an unfamiliar vehicle approaching her calf. The results were overwhelming.
Out of the 341 cow-calf pairs observed, 99% of mother cows moved between the vehicle and their calves, presumably to physically protect them.
4. "Dairy cows lead long, happy lives."
A dairy cow's typical lifespan is about five years, a quarter of the length they would live in the natural world. In the dairy industry, milk is money, and when a cow is no longer functioning as a high-speed milk machine, farmers have no use for them. The cows are discarded or sold for meat.
The fate of a newborn calf is decided immediately upon birth. Male calves are sold and raised for beef or killed within weeks for veal, if they're not killed immediately. Female calves will be dairy cows, just like their mothers. A few weeks after birth, a female cow will be tortured with a series of excruciating procedures. Her tail will be docked, and her horns disbudded. Disbudding is a process in which a hot iron is pressed into a cow's head to damage the tissue and prevent them from growing horns. This cruelty is followed by a life of living in crowded feedlots, with no space to play or comfortably lie down.
These cows will experience the same torturous cycle of being impregnated, giving birth, and losing their baby, again and again, all for a carton of milk.
5. "Dairy isn’t harmful to the environment."
Dairy cows produce harmful greenhouse gas emissions that contribute significantly to climate change. This is not to mention the loss of land used to raise the cows and soil degradation from the careless handling of fertilizers. A study by Oxford University found that producing a glass of dairy milk every day for a year requires 7,000 square feet of land, the equivalent of two tennis courts and more than ten times as much as for the same amount of oat milk.
Dairy cows produce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
In the United States, communities are suffering from extreme air pollution and contaminated drinking water due to harmful greenhouse gases and runoff from nearby dairy farms. Dairy farming is not only harmful to cows, it is threatening the future of our planet and the health of human beings.
Compared to meat, dairy is so often seen as the lesser of two evils. But the harsh reality is that there's just as much cruelty taking place on dairy farms as on any other factory farm. We can all take action today by crossing dairy off our shopping lists. Replacing it with delicious plant-based milks, butters, and cheeses is the best way to lessen the suffering of cows, and to improve our planet's health.
