namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

I just read this article on Dandavats and it encouraged me to hurry up and write an article that I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. Most of the information in this article is from Peta, the vegan society, and www.milksucks.com (I know, not a nice name, but they have some good info).

One of the first things I heard when I met the devotees was “you can’t be a vegan devotee.” This is because Krishna loves milk and milk products and devotees love to offer them to him.

The problem is that the milk we (in the cities) are offering to Krishna is not pure. As Jahnava mataji said last Saturday, actually all foods in Kali Yuga are considered to be impure.

Krishna doesn’t just love milk, Krishna loves cows. So how does he feel if we are offering him grocery store milk that is laden with antibiotics and growth hormones—milk that comes from cows that are abused and mistreated and finally sent to the slaughterhouse?

To give milk the cow must be pregnant and then have a calf. On both organic and non-organic farms, cows are kept continuously pregnant. On non-organic farms mother cows are treated like machines, chained by their necks in concrete stalls for months at a time, their udders are swollen so large that they sometimes drag on the ground. Cows give milk for the same reasons humans do—to feed their babies. To keep milk production high, cows are kept pregnant by artificial insemination and their male calves are taken away at 1-2 days old and chained inside cramped dark crates to be killed for veal. The milk meant for them is what we buy on the grocery shelves. They are not even given a chance to drink their mother’s milk.

Watch this and this.

If you are up for it, Peta has an extensive video archive you can search through.

Calves are separated at birth from their mothers

A cow’s natural lifespan could be 25 years. Most modern dairy cows are sent for slaughter at about 5 years old, after only three or four lactations. This is how we treat our mother cow. On both organic and non-organic farms the stress of being constantly pregnant and having your baby taken away from you after birth is so traumatic that physically and emotionally these cows can no longer produce milk. Cows on organic farms do however live longer than those on factory farms.

Separation from the mother is a distressing process as mother and calf form a strong maternal bond. Dairy cow husbandry expert Professor John Webster described the removal of the calf as the “most potentially distressing incident in the life of the dairy cow.” Webster says that “the cow will submit herself to considerable personal discomfort or risk to nourish and protect her calf.” Examples of this are cows that have escaped and travelled several miles to find their own calf after it has been sold on to another farm.

A proportion of female calves are selected as “herd replacements.” Reared for the cowshed, these usually spend their first 6-8 weeks of life confined individually in narrow pens. Taken from their mothers, unable to interact meaningfully with their fellows, these calves suffer behavioural deprivation which can affect them for life. Alternatively, calves may be reared in groups. With either method, calves are usually fed by artificial teat or bucket. They are fed milk replacers often containing cattle blood, so that we can buy the mother’s milk.

Cows on traditional farms are mutilated

Calves can be subjected to a range of painful mutilations. Male calves have traditionally been castrated without anaesthetic, causing acute pain.

Calves are often disbudded to prevent their horns growing, or are dehorned in later life. Both procedures are painful and stressful. Disbudding involves applying a heated iron to the horn buds of young calves up to about 2 months old. If carried out within the first week, the law does not require an anaesthetic to be used. Dehorning involves cutting off the older animal’s horns using a saw, horn shears or cutting wire, and cauterising the exposed blood vessels. Mercifully, an anaesthetic is required by law.

Male calves reared for veal or simply destroyed

Male calves are the unwanted byproducts of the milk industry and are treated as disposable waste. Government advice for killing calves on farms is that “a free bullet or shotgun are preferred methods.”

Veal calves are forced to spend their short lives in individual crates that are no more than 30 inches wide and 72 inches long. These crates are designed to prohibit exercise and normal muscle growth in order to produce tender “gourmet” veal. The calves are fed a milk substitute that is purposely low in iron, so that they will become anemic and their flesh will stay pale.

Because of these extremely unhealthy living conditions, calves raised for veal are susceptible to a long list of diseases, including chronic pneumonia and diarrhea.

After enduring 12 to 23 weeks in these conditions, these young animals, many of whom can barely walk because of muscle atrophy or sickness, are crowded into metal trucks for transport to the slaughterhouse. On these trucks, they are trampled and suffer from temperature extremes and lack of food, water, and veterinary care.

Veal crates are prohibited in Britain, and the European Union has instructed its members to phase them out by the end of 2007. In the meantime, Dutch farmers are required to keep calves in group pens. As far as I am aware it is not yet illegal to keep calves in these conditions in the USA.

If you buy milk from the grocery store, you are directly supporting the veal industry.

The suffering of the mother.

It is undeniable that cows on traditional farms suffer horrifically. And even those on organic farms suffer from being continuously pregnant, having their calves taken away, and eventually being sent to slaughter. How can we justify buying the milk of cows sent to slaughterhouses in order to offer it to Krishna. Is this really pleasing to Krishna?

What is the goal of these dairy farms? Higher and higher milk yield.

To maximise production, the modern dairy cow is made pregnant again whilst lactating. She will bear a calf each year until worn out and sent for slaughter. Most dairy cows are inseminated artificially. She will have her first calf when 2 years old. She will continue to be milked for 10 months - but will be made pregnant again in the third month. Only during the final few weeks of this pregnancy will she be dried out and her overworked udder given a rest. The amount of milk produced by the cow in peak lactation is more than 10 times the amount that the calf would naturally drink.

The industry’s quest for higher milk yield has imposed great stress on the dairy cow’s metabolism. So great that she no longer has the natural capacity to keep up with her over-producing udder. To keep pace, the cow’s natural food of grass and herbs is supplemented with high-protein concentrated feeds based on grains, soya and fishmeal, which can result in increased gut and foot problems.

What happens when mother cow is worked beyond her capacity and forced to suffer so much?

Mastitis

Mastitis is a painful udder infection that occurs in all dairy herds. Some 35-40 incidences of mastitis are found per 100 cows. The bacterial infection causes inflammation and swelling of the udder, which can become hard and hot with an abnormal discharge. Antibiotics are injected into the teats of affected cows to treat the disease.

Ketosis

High-yielding dairy cows are prone to Ketosis, a condition that usually occurs in early lactation. It is brought on by the cow’s metabolism having to work too hard to sustain milk production. This causes the cow to metabolise her own body fat to make milk, resulting in excessive amounts of ketone bodies in the liver. Dairy cow expert, Professor Webster states, “Humans with ketosis and liver damage feel extremely unwell and we may reasonably assume the same for cows.”

Bovine Somatotropin (BST)

Not content with dairy cows pushed to their physical limits, the genetic engineer has come up with the milk-boosting hormone, Bovine Somatotrophin (BST). BST is a genetically engineered version of the cow’s own growth hormone. It is designed to increase milk production by a further 10-20%. Thankfully, BST has been banned for use or sale in the European Union (EU). However, the EU ban does not apply to imports of dairy products (e.g. ice cream) and meat from countries such as the USA where BST is used.

BST is administered by injection and can cause serious health and welfare problems. These include increased mastitis (a painful udder infection), tender and long-lasting swellings at the injection site, and digestive disorders. Bovine

Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Cattle & Humans

Intensification of the dairy industry causes great suffering to both cow and calf. Through the disastrous practice of turning natural herbivores (cattle) into carnivores by feeding them meat and bone meal, intensive farming has also precipitated Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or “Mad cow disease”. BSE is an infectious and incurable disease that attacks the brain and nervous system of cattle. The UK has the highest level of BSE in the world, with over 179,500 cases confirmed to March 2001. There is now official recognition that BSE may never be eliminated altogether from the cattle herd.

Does your milk come from cows that are fed meat? Purchasing milk from the store means supporting slaughter of cows.

It is a prerequisite for milk production that cows are kept pregnant. To fully maximise profits, farmers use dairy cows as breeding machines to produce calves for the beef industry and to replace the dairy herd itself. And at the end of her short life, the worn out dairy cow is sent for slaughter. Under measures designed to control BSE, her body will be destroyed. By drinking milk from the grocery store we are directly supporting the killing of cows.

Milk from the store is not vegetarian

Milk from the grocery store contains vitamin D3 (aka fish oil).

Krishna loves cows

The cow is so sacred, that as Sivarama Swami mentions, caring for cows is what goes on in the spiritual world.

Krishna desires that mother cow is cared for her entire life. That the calf drinks the mother’s milk (as much as it wants) and that mother and calf are not separated for purposes of milk production. Both the traditional and organic dairy industries go completely against the basic principle of cow protection. In both cases cows are treated as commodities and when no longer useful sent to slaughter.

It is too easy to turn a blind eye to what goes on behind the grocery store shelves. After all, how can we not offer milk sweets to Krishna? How will the Sunday feast go on without sweet rice?

But how can we offer milk sweets to Krishna using milk that (unless organic) contains hormones, antibiotics, disease, blood, fish and who knows what else? Cows are so dear to Lord Krishna that I just cannot imagine he would want to taste milk from cows so horribly abused, or even if not abused (organic cows), nevertheless sent to the slaughterhouse.

The ideal is, as Sivarama Swami says, to support the Iskcon farms in their efforts to protect the cows and offer pure milk to Krishna. But for those of us who live far from farms and must buy milk from the store, it seems that abstaining from milk products is the only choice. A vegan diet is the only option for cow protection living in the city.