The story of milk

Did you know the honest process of milking a cow is way different from the commercial way?

Usually a cow has to give consent to the bull when making a calf. She carries the calf and receives tender love and is even worshipped in certain cultures. She's treated like family. Once she gives birth to the calf, just like us humans, her blood turns into milk and she feeds it to her calf. If the calf drinks too much milk it becomes sick. So the cow allows humans who take care of her to get her milk. If anyone else other than her caretaker comes to fetch milk, the cow doesn't let him/her milk her because she feels uncomfortable to their touch.

This is the traditional way of milking cows. This is what our ancestors have been doing for ages and ages. But what happens commercially? Cows are treated as objects that have a price on their heads and have to slave away tirelessly for the factories that 'harvest' their milk. But don't they have emotions too? Unfortunately, they speak a language unknown to humans and are intellectually divergent from us. This is why the majority of us go against our own principles like slavery, animal rights, etc when dealing with cows.

What happens in commercial dairy production is the cows are given hormones or artificially inseminated or are actually raped into conceiving a calf by injections or stimulating an actual bull. The cow is not always willing when this happens and she's forced into conceiving a calf just so she could produce excess milk for us. Once she gives birth, the calf is separated from her and is given to a slaughter house for soft, succulent beef or kept until it grows up to undergo the same fate as the mother. Also machines are used to milk cows. One reason is of course mass production. But another reason is since cows won't voluntarily give milk, machines are used to suck out the milk until she starts bleeding. When some of her blood gets into the milk, manufacturers use bleach to cover that up when processing the milk. This process is repeated to the cow until she becomes dry or infertile at which point she is either already dead or dying. Then they are sold as meat.

This is just one of the many animals we torture for our selfish consumption. For what? For our survival? So that we don't get sick? What about them? They too are living beings like us and they have the same rights to live as us.

Not just cows, all animals associated with dairy and meat industries are subject to such injustices which is unacceptable for any given excuse brought upon by commercial farms.

Did you know that we are the only species of mammals to depend on another lactating mammal after infant stage?

The famous myth of cow's milk containing more calcium and preventing osteoporosis has been debunked by recent studies. It has shown that many leafy vegetables give us many times the calcium found in cow milk. It was also proven that osteoporosis treatment and milk have no direct relationship.

So why are we engulfed in a web of lies? Simply put, if the truth comes out most of the dairy companies and meat vendors would have to close down. But there's another positive consequence of this. Breeding centers contribute a lot to the carbon footprint of the Earth. Due to this we consumers indirectly contribute it too and we are held accountable.

Demand creates supply.

So what is the alternative? Turn vegan? Completely reject meat and dairy products? No. I'm sure most of you will find it hard to do so. The only way to reduce such abuse on animals and Mother Earth is to gradually switch to plant based milk and products which have a relatively smaller carbon footprint. Even today there are many options in the super market. It may be a bit pricier than traditional milk products but at least we would be contributing to a better and a healthier world and we would have the satisfaction of quietly fighting against injustice done to animals.

As for meat lovers, so far there's no alternative available readily in the market yet. But scientists are experimenting with plant based food that taste like meat (aka organic meat). Even if we are unable to do all of these, the best way is to minimize our intake. If we could do this globally, the demand would significantly drop and it could make a huge impact on the lifestyles of the animals.

Basically, the outline of this article is you can make a change in the life of an animal that's suffering out there just for your luxury. Know that you can reject brands that do not comply with the safety regulations since like I aforementioned the customer is always right.

This was written by Siluni de Silva. You can find her here. Click here to read more articles of Siluni de Silva

Example images courtesy of Milco (Pvt) Ltd and Alpro (Belgium)

#milk #animalrights #savetheearth #cows