Question

Maybe it's a New Zealand thing, but I don't meet many dairy farmers who don't treat their cattle well - if you overlook the ones who kill the animals for meat at the end of the day. Frankly, I've seen very few farms where the livestock have had an inhumane quality of life in this country; up until the horrid moment when that life is taken... ...and not that I tar all with the same brush, but two of the three farms in which I've seen animals treated poorly in this country were those you'd expect to treat them best - "organic" meat farms.

 

Having been without dairy products for over a year, I can tell you that in my case, the whole idea of dairy and eggs totally gross me out now. The smell alone is enough to make me question how I ever used to eat that sh!t.

It's been theorized by Dr. Neal Barnard that dairy is addictive. I tend to believe it because before I decided to become Vegan, I couldn't imagine life without dairy, especially cheese. Now I can't believe I could ever get it down.

It turns out that I, like the majority of people on the planet, am allergic to dairy anyway. When I cut it out of my diet, my nose stopped running, my joints stopped aching, and I stopped getting menstrual cramps that had me eating 8 or 9 Ibuprofin at a time.

Re. dairy and "humane" dairies, cows have to be pregnant or have a young calf to lactate, just like humans. So, no matter how "humane" the dairy, what are they doing with the baby cows that are the "bi-product" of dairy farming, especially the male baby cows? On another message board once, some guy was going on about how he went out and bought a cow to get his dairy and how much healthier it was and how well he treated his cow. Then I asked what he was doing with the baby cows, and I never got a reply.

Re. eggs, if you are eating the eggs from the chickens that are running around freely on your property, that's much better than going to the supermarket to purchase the eggs produced on cruel factory farms, and that's great. But by eating eggs at all, you are buying into the idea that eggs are an acceptable food for people. And the demand that this acceptance has created is what made the factory farming system possible.

 

well said.


oh and we all know that new zealand is a perfect, magical place. so let's all just move there already!

 

I am vegan now, but I took a long time to stop eating cheese and I wish I hadn’t. I take my hat off to people who go straight vegan and don’t spend years eating blocks of cheese. Cheese worse than meat Imo as far as cruelty goes.


Dairy cows in NZ get treated good? Well that would be a suprise since NZ treats other farm animals like shit. And yes we do, our animal welfare laws are BEHIND the times in many instances.

About dairy cows, i see lovely little dairy cows in their paddocks as i drive past the paddocks, aw it looks so quaint. If i drive past on certain days i can also see the baby calves in the calf boxes by the road gate. Where kind loving dairy farmers put baby calves, to wait to be picked up by the slaughterhouse truck. its so cool seeing these BABIES waiting for their killers, alone in a crate/box, and scared.jsut heart warming those nice kind farmers.

Also in this city some years back our newspaper reported that a dairy cow who was on a truck to be killed at the slaughterhouse, she actually gave birth on the truck, baby calf rolled out of the truck and fell onto the main road, just before arriving at the slaughterhouse. The zoo adopted the calf, prolly because it was seen by the public or something and would look very bad imo. Mother cow was still murdered.

I read that this happens quite a bit, pregnant cows being killed. I wonder how many give birth in the slaughterhouse or on the trucks like this cow did.

"Pregnant cows are killed

A survey conducted by British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) in an abattoir in the south of England and published in 1996 found that 23.5% of the cows slaughtered were pregnant. 26.9% of these were in the third trimester of their nine month pregnancy. (35)

The average age of the cows was 7.9 years. According to the farmers who sent them to slaughter, 28.2% were culled because of infertility, 21.8% because of mastitis and 15.8% because of old age.

50.9% of the farmers did not think the cows were pregnant and 27.3% did not know. Only 21.8% of the farmers realized the cow was pregnant. The author points out that killing the pregnant cows constitutes a "severe economic loss" to the dairy industry. At least 6% of culled cows are "discarded" for fertility reasons when they are in fact pregnant.

Overall, 148,544 cows are estimated to have been culled when pregnant. Of these, 39,958 cows would have been in the third trimester of their pregnancy. "

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/slaughter/std4.htm



"Killed While Still Pregnant [4]

Most cull cows (cows destined to be killed) are sent for slaughter when they are pregnant and calves have been born in transport on the way to the slaughterhouse. The Ministry of Agriculture explains "It is normal husbandry practice to put cows incalf during lactation, even if they are to be culled. In the normal course of events, therefore, many cows going for slaughter would be in-calf"."

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/animals/exploitation/cows/poor_mother.php


(Viva use to have a whole section on this, with pictures of dead calves at slaughterhouses and such, but I can’t find it, if anyone knows of a good site that has lots of info on this would they please paste the link, ty.)

I also think how calves are taken away from their mothers is disgusting. If that was a HUMAN mother we would have a tv show about how sad and tragic it all is, indeed when a human mother is forced to give her baby away we all get out the tissues and have a cry because its so hard for her. But a cow? Who cares, just rip their babies away so I can stuff my face with the mother cows breast milk.

imo cheese is worse than eating meat. I think it is only eaten so much because it is not "fleshy", doesn’t have veins and blood and doesn’t look yuck like a corpse.

 

oh yeah and what farmers are these, that dont kill the animals?

 

I can believe that! I go a little crazy sometimes and feel guilty.

As for chocolate, I've found semi-sweet chocolate chips at the supermarket- good for pie filling. Just make sure the package says "parve."

 

I find myself not really missing cheese, but I confess to eating and enjoying yogurt. I like the taste, and it's a source of calcium. I don't miss milk, but some flavored soy milk once in a while is a treat.

Carob is an occasional treat, not a regular indulgence.

There are all sorts of soy items that will replace cheese and other dairy products, and one of my favorite foods is hummus. It makes a great substitute for spreadable cheese.

 

And, what happens to the dairy cows that get too old for milk production? MMmmm, hamburgers.

 

I guess I have not reached the higher level of veganism yet. I have been vegan for like 3 or 4 months now, but I still think eggs and dairy taste good, its the thought of eating that shit that has been crulely extracted from animals that I find disgusting.