Poor CalfEvery year, hundreds of thousands of calves are separated from their mothers within 4 days of birth. Why? To satisfy our unnatural and unhealthy taste for cow's milk. Few people realise that in order to produce the milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt in meat-eating and vegetarian diets, cows are subjected to yearly pregnancies. The strong maternal bond between the cow and its new-born calf is broken after a few days; the calf is put on milk substitutes, before it consumes too much of its mother's milk. Naturally, they would suckle for 6 months. Only 20-25% of calves go on to provide milk. The remainder are exported to continental veal crates (where they are confined in narrow crates, unable to turn around and fed an iron-deficient liquid diet); killed at 2 weeks for pies, rennet for cheese-making and calf skin; or reared for beef (60-70% of beef in the UK originates from; and helps make profitable, the dairy herd). Poor CowThe modern dairy cow is nothing more than a milk machine: artificially inseminated (60-75%), milked 2-3 times a day, and for 6-7 months each year milked whilst pregnant. Instead of producing 3 litres of milk per day for her calf, she produces 30. Her full udder can weigh up to 50kg (the equivalent of 50 bags of sugar). Unsurprisingly, every year 20% of dairy cows go lame, while 25% suffer infections such as mastitis. Her natural life span is 20 years or more but pushed beyond her limits is worn out due to disease 36%, poor yield (28%) or inability to calve (36%) and so is slaughtered for burgers at 3-7 years.And the Story Doesn't End There...Cattle slurry, 20-40 times more potent at removing oxygen from river water than untreated human sewerage, is probably the major cause of water contamination in the UK -- contributing to fish deaths and algae blooms. A cow emits around 200 litres of methane daily -- one of the main contributors to global warming.Dairy products contain no dietary fibre and pose a serious threat to human health. The link between foods with a high saturated fat content, such as milk, and heart disease is well established -- as is the prevalence of cows milk allergies (asthma, eczema, diarrhoea and colic) in infants. Most incidents of food poisoning can be traced to animal foods -- including milk and cheese. Fortunately, safer, healthier and cruelty-free alternatives exist in the form of soya-based milks, cheeses, yoghurts and even ice cream! Consuming dairy products helps to maintain an industry that depends on the exploitation and premature death of one of the gentlest creatures on the planet: the long-suffering dairy cow. For more information about healthy ways of eating that are entirely free of dairy products, contact; The Vegan SocietyContributed by Ben Leamy, B.K.C.Leamy@UEL.AC.UK. |