There she laid on the floor, exhausted and terrified. She had just given birth to the most beautiful baby boy, and would have just a short moment to cuddle him and give him the warmth and affection a newborn needs. She knew this bliss wouldn’t last, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had gone through this 3 times already, and it wouldn’t be her last nightmare. Nobody paid attention to her pleas and cries, her begging to please let her keep her baby this time. Nobody cared, she had no value to them. She was a prisoner and a slave and as such, she had been repeatedly raped and beaten by her masters.
As expected, the men came back an hour later to rip her baby away from her. She screamed and begged, only to receive beatings in return. How can people be so cruel? Her defenseless baby screams and shakes, his frail body not yet able to move properly. The men pick him up and throw him in the back of a truck as if he were a bag of sand. He lands on something soft. More discarded newborns just like him. Some of them weren’t moving anymore, it was too late. He didn’t know it yet, but his short life would soon come to an end, and not a peaceful one. He would be shipped off to another house of torture, to be cut in pieces for his tender meat.
This is the daily life of a dairy cow…
If this scenario was about a human mother and her baby, or even about a dog, we would all be outraged. But unfortunately, in our society, we consider only some animals as being worthy of love and compassion, and we view others just as a commodity.
The other sad thing is, many people do not even really know where milk comes from (other than from female bovines of course).
Milk production requires the following stages:
- Impregnation of the cow: Don’t think act of love, think rape.The cow is being held so she cannot move, while someone sticks their fist inside of her vagina to artificially impregnate her. This is by no means a painless act.
- The cow is pregnant for 283 days, during which she is confined in a tiny lot, forced to stand upright, often in her own feces
- Once she gives birth she lactates for 10 months. Since her milk cannot be “wasted” on her calf, the male calves are usually killed right away for meat. Her milk is then stolen from her, to be sold to us.
- After 10 months of lactation, the cycle repeats and she is forcefully inseminated again. She will go through this horrific process for about 5 years until her body can’t take it no more, and is then slaughtered for meat.
Cows are extremely sensitive animals who form relationships with one another. They are known to make friendships for life. They are also loving mothers and undergo a severe trauma every time their calves are being taken away from them. The video below will give you a glimpse (nothing gore I promise):
Health implications of drinking cow milk
Even if you’re not the emotional type and the above facts left you cold, the unsanitary practices and health risks associated with drinking cow’s milk should worry you.
“Milk is healthy and provides us with plenty of calcium, which is good for our bones. Children need to drink milk if we want them to grow strong and healthy.”
I’ve believed this lie for so many years, and even after I reached adulthood, I was so hooked on milk that I drank it by the liters. I remember chugging down at least two large glasses of chocolate milk per day, until a couple of years ago. If you had asked me back then how milk is produced, I would have responded “DUH it comes from cows”. But I did not know all the information provided in this post.
Dairy cows are prone to contract and infection called Mastitis, which is an inflammation of the mammary glands. E-coli is one of the many bacteria that can cause the disease, and as a result, the cow’s body will produce white blood cells also commonly known as pus. Pus is present in the milk that is produced and sold to consumers, and according to PETA,
The SCC of healthy milk is below 100,000 cells per milliliter; however, the dairy industry is allowed to combine milk from all the cows in a herd in order to arrive at a “bulk tank” somatic cell count (BTSCC).13 Milk with a maximum BTSCC of 750,000 cells per milliliter can be sold.14 A BTSCC of 700,000 or more generally indicates that two-thirds of the cows in the herd are suffering from udder infections.
Besides the fact that humans shouldn't drink milk other than their mother’s, I think we can all agree that drinking pus can’t possibly be healthy for us
- Milk consumption is linked to osteoporosis in women (thus not so healthy for our bones!)
- Milk is linked to food allergies with symptoms such as asthma, cramps, bloating, indigestion, rashes and headaches.
- Milk consumption is linked to higher ovarian cancer risk
- Milk is found to be responsible for acne, constipation and even type 1 diabetes
What to make of all this?
Thanks to social media and brave activists who have made it their mission to inform the rest of us clueless consumers, we can no longer claim that we did not know exactly where our milk comes from.
I’m truly hoping that if you’ve read this and were moved by the story of this poor mother, or that you’re just a little more concerned about the health implications of your milk habit, you’ll reconsider buying cows milk and other dairy products, especially if you have access to tasty alternatives such as oat milk, rice milk, soy milk or almond milk.
They taste equally good in cereal, coffee or wherever you want to use it.
Sources
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/cows-milk-cruel-unhealthy-product/
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5235185/the-life-of-dairy-cows.pdf
https://nutritionstudies.org/12-frightening-facts-milk/
