Shedding Light on the Treatment of Dairy Cows

February 1, 2008


	©USDA
	Dairy cows suffer in ways most consumers aren't aware of.

The latest HSUS investigation at a dairy cow slaughter plant has illuminated one of the cruelties that can occur in the dairy industry—an industry that, like other sectors involved in factory farming, generally keeps consumers in the dark about the conditions in which it raises and kills animals.

There are about nine million dairy cows in the United States. The majority of these animals typically aren't living on rolling green pastures, but rather are confined indoors, often in tie-stalls.

Institutionalized Abuse

One lesser-known abuse in the dairy industry is tail-docking—a practice banned in several European countries and opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Tail-docking is the partial amputation of up to two-thirds of the tail, typically performed without any painkiller whatsoever. Scientific studies have shown this mutilation causes distress, pain, and increased fly attacks.

In addition to breeding them for astronomical rates of milk production, producers often inject cows with hormones to further increase their unnaturally large milk yield. One animal scientist compares the modern dairy cow's metabolic stress stemming from hyper-productivity to a human jogging six hours a day, every day. Dairy cows are milked for ten months a year (including seven of their nine months of pregnancy) until their worn-out bodies begin to give in and they're slaughtered. Approximately 15 percent of the hamburger meat in the United States comes from "spent" dairy cows.

Although cows can live to be 15 or even older, they're typically slaughtered around four years of age. And as The HSUS's investigation revealed, dairy cows who are too sick or injured to walk to their own slaughter ("downers") can endure terrible abuses.

The Connection between Dairy and Veal

Like humans and all other mammals, cows produce milk for their offspring and only lactate when they've given birth. In fact, humans are the only species that regularly consumes mother's milk past infancy, much less the mother's milk of another species.

Dairy cows are usually kept in a cycle of near-constant pregnancy. On average, half of their calves are females and will likely replace their mothers on the dairy line. Male calves are often separated from their mothers within the first day—even within a few hours—after birth, causing both mother and calf great distress. Many of these day-old male calves are raised for veal and can be doomed to spend their entire four-to-five-month lives chained or tethered by the neck in individual crates so small, they can't even turn around. The veal industry is a direct byproduct of the dairy industry and depends on it for its survival.

What You Can Do