Have you ever heard the legend of the “Dairy Cow”? She is the joyous creature who grazes the green fields and magically keeps creating lush milk from her breasts to happily give us our cheeses and ice creams, yoghurts and creams? I’ve got news for you: She doesn’t exist.
Spoiler alert: After reading this text, you can no longer claim ignorance and you have become morally responsible for your choices.
"Dairy cow” is an enslaved lactating mother. The reason why she is lactating, is because she gave birth to her child.
The majority of cows get pregnant by rape, or as the industry likes to call it by “artificial insemination”. An arm was shoved into her anus to grab hold of and position the uterus, while the other hand shoved a metal instrument through her vulva into her uterus to inject the bull semen. Specific metal racks are used to keep the cow in place. It is not uncommon to beat her during the process, as she may struggle to stay still.
After she gets pregnant, she carries her baby in her womb for 9 months, just like us humans. But when the amazing time of giving birth to her child has come, the joy of motherhood is very quickly torn from her, and she loses her child forever. Her baby gets separated from her within days after being born.
If it is a boy calf, he is sold to be raised for “tender" baby meat also known as ‘veal’, or he is immediately killed and sliced up into cheap meat, as he has no use in the dairy slave industry. If the calf is a girl, she gets put aside and prepared for her own lifetime of enslavement and emotional torment.
And so the mother keeps lactating for her stolen baby, until she is forcefully impregnated again. In this way, she lives her whole life pregnant, giving birth and lactating for her children that she never got to know, until her body collapses from the horrific abuse and exploitation. She is then sent to her premature death by slaughter. Her natural lifespan would be 20 years, but it only takes between 4 and 6 years for her to become totally “spent” for the industry.
Dairy is the cruelest form of animal exploitation. The industry literally sucks every last bit of life out her body before her throat gets slit. So, not only do they get murdered in the end just like all the animals in the meat industry, but they also have to endure unimaginable emotional pain and terror as mothers. On top of it all, dairy industry is also responsible for the death of countless numbers of babies…
The question is: Are we under a spell or totally heartless?
Is that cappuccino really worth all of this torture? Do you really want to consume the breastmilk that was meant for somebody else’s baby?
Can we not just have oat, rice, barley, spelt, amaranth, buckwheat, hemp, chia, flax, quinoa, teff, coconut, millet, soy, almond, macadamia, cashew, pistachio, walnut, or hazelnut milk?
If you are a mother or ever had a mother, I ask you – please have mercy on these mothers.
If you have a child or ever were a child, I ask you – please have mercy on these children.