Last night I stumbled upon a really informative clip on YouTube regarding the dairy industry.
It took all the information I knew, and a lot I didn’t know, about the dairy industry and condensed it down into a 5 minute clip that evidently was really effective.
Through some research I have done, I have come up with the figure of 40%- yes, as in almost half of all dairy cows suffer from mastitis. The most common form is contagious mastitis, which can be easily transmitted from one cow to another during milking. Symptoms of mastitis can include gross inflammation of the teat (swelling, redness, heat and pain), aswell as a reduction in the milk yield, changes of the milks composition, and in the cows case, fever, depression, shivering, loss of appetite and consequently loss of weight. This all occurs to a cow that has been enslaved into a life of giving.
L Mastitis infected cow's milk R Healthy cow's milk
Anyways, veal also comes into the dairy industry. Think about it, humans give milk why? Because they have just had babies. Cows are the same.
So what happens to the calves you ask? Well funny story. The calves are separated from their mother from the get go, causing great distress to both. Yep- we are the dingoes stealing their babies. The female cows are lucky, they get to grow up into dairy cows aswell, and if not, get slaughtered for their precious rennet (found in the stomach) so we can enjoy a nice fondu ahhh– it’s a glamorous life ahead. I’m not sure who gets it better though, because males, well there is just so much in store for them! They get to go to big fancy auctions where they are paraded around a ring, tripping over their own legs, mostly because they have barely had the chance to form enough muscle to take their first steps. They are then bought by the lucky winner, and get put into a cozy isolated little cages (so they can do some serious soul-searching) where their legs go lame, as the stalls are so small they can barely lay down comfortably, or even turn around.
So what happens to the calves you ask? Well funny story. The calves are separated from their mother from the get go, causing great distress to both. Yep- we are the dingoes stealing their babies. The female cows are lucky, they get to grow up into dairy cows aswell, and if not, get slaughtered for their precious rennet (found in the stomach) so we can enjoy a nice fondu ahhh– it’s a glamorous life ahead. I’m not sure who gets it better though, because males, well there is just so much in store for them! They get to go to big fancy auctions where they are paraded around a ring, tripping over their own legs, mostly because they have barely had the chance to form enough muscle to take their first steps. They are then bought by the lucky winner, and get put into a cozy isolated little cages (so they can do some serious soul-searching) where their legs go lame, as the stalls are so small they can barely lay down comfortably, or even turn around.
They are then fed on a delicious almost all liquid iron reduced diet (slimming!) which consist of milk replacer (yep, they don’t even get to taste real milk, mostly because momma’s back at the dairy shed, so you can have your daily dose of cookies and milk) until they are borderline anemic. This creates that lovely pale coloured veal, fancied by the more ‘cultured’ meat eater.
Once dairy cows are done living their charmed life they are sold off at auctions, and as their flesh is such a low quality, are mostly used as burger patties.
I honestly think he was going to cry. We talked about him being fucked after that and he said he wouldn’t consume dairy, I told him he must have been be aware of what was going on, and he said he didn’t think about it. Being naive about something doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Also- kid couldn’t last a week without dairy, let alone being a vegan. He did say something that stuck with me though, he said, if you showed me this, and then I showed other people, and they showed other people, and they showed other people, then maybe everyone would stop and it wouldn’t happen anymore. It was cute. But ever the cynic, I told him what my omnivore sister once told me, ‘it still taste good, so nobody cares’.
ENJOY YOUR MEAL
k.
kelfen 