She is milked, made sick and then killed.
For their milk, the cow is forced into yearly pregnancies. After giving birth she is milked for 10 months but will be artificially inseminated during her third month so that she is milked even when she is pregnant. The demanded of production of milk is more than her body can give. So she starts breaking down body tissue to produce milk. The result is an illness called ketosis.
Most of the day the cow is tied up in a narrow stall usually wallowing in her own excrement. She gets mastitis because the hands that milk her are rough and usually unclean. She gets rumen acidosis from bad food and lameness. To keep the animals at high levels of productivity, dairy farmers keep them constantly pregnant through the use of artificial insemination. Farmers also use an array of drugs, including bovine growth hormone (BGH); prostaglandin, which is used to bring a cow into heat whenever the farmer wants to have her inseminated; antibiotics; and even tranquilizers, in order to influence the productivity and behavior of the cows.
In the villages they practice phukan, a method of milking a cow. A stick is poked into the cow’s uterus and wiggled, causing her intense pain. Villagers believe this leads to more milk. In the cities they are given two injections of oxytocin every day to make the milk come faster. This gives her labor pains twice a day. Her uterus develops sores and makes her sterile prematurely. Oxytocin is banned for use on animals but it is sold in every cigarette shop around a dairy. Every illiterate milkman knows the word. In human beings, oxytocin causes hormonal imbalances, weak eyesight, miscarriages, and cancer. Recently, Gujarat started raiding dairies for oxytocin. In one day, they found 350,000 ampoules in just Ahmedabad!
Each year 20 per cent of these dairy cows are sent illegally by truck and train to slaughter houses. Or they are starved to death by letting them loose in the cities. Cows on today’s farms live only about four to five years, as opposed to the life expectancy of 20-25 years enjoyed by cows of an earlier era. No cow lives out her normal life cycle. She is milked, made sick and then killed. Even worse happens to her child. The male calves are tied up and starved to death. Or sent to the slaughter houses. Even Dr Kurien admits that in Mumbai every year 80,000 calves are forcibly put to death.
Perhaps the greatest pain suffered by cows in the dairy industry is the repeated loss of their young. Female calves may join the ranks of the milk producers, but the males are generally taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and sold at auction either for the notorious veal industry or to beef producers. Also, once the cow stops giving milk, they are sold to illegal traders and they end up as someone’s bag or shoes. Milk stables which do not have place for cows, leave them out on the road to forage in trash cans for food.
Getting the cows involved in the Urine therapy is not the solution. In China, bear gall bladders and bile products are used to treat a number of complaints, such as fever, conjunctivitis and liver disease. However as the demand for bile increased, Singapore now has a thriving trade, in illegal bear farming. Similarly, if the demand for cow urine increases, we could be facing a similar trade in India, where cows become machines and are kept in tiny cramped sheds with no proper food or water.
In traditional India, the cows roamed free and were milked by hand. The males were castrated (this turns a bull into a steer), and then used to plow the fields. The animals were revered. Their manure sweetened the soil, and was also dried and used as a cooking fuel, and even a building material. The animals were part of the ecosystem, part of the culture, part of the spirituality, and part of people’s families. It can be painful to grasp how far we have strayed from a harmonious, credible, and sustainable relationship with these beautiful creatures.
For those who are curious to know the way animals are treated for human need, want and desire should consider watching a documentary called EARTHLINGS narreted by Joaquin Pheniex as well as THE COVE.
VIA A forward from a friend.
