Some videos are so powerful, they need no commentary...

... such as this one. Please watch. Please share. And please do your best to stay away from dairy, for the reasons explained here.

A Mother's Day Message: The Truth About Dairy

Ask Yourself: Is this really the sort of world we want to create?

Thanks to the folks at Animal Liberation of Australia, we have this stark reminder (above) that calves have shorter lifespans than flies. This sickening state of affairs is thanks to the Dairy and Veal Industries.

Our Israeli brothers and sisters in the Animal Rights Movement run a wonderful website called CHAI (Concern for Helping Animals in Israel). As Chai's Website points out:

In North America, over a million infant calves pass their short lives in wooden crates to produce veal for the table. Their mothers in the dairy industry are condemned to a continuous cycle of pregnancy-birth-lactation to keep producing milk. The veal and dairy industries are therefore completely intertwined and interdependent. In a dairy operation the female offspring replace the slaughtered milking cows, but the male calves, once born, have little value for farmers. One common outcome is to simply leave the calf to die of exposure or to smash his skull with a handy shovel or sledgehammer.

Where there are dealers to collect them, newborn calves are sold as "bob" veal for about $50 apiece and killed, barely able to stand, at under a week old. In larger dairy operations, where more infants are available, traders buy them for sale to veal producers. Once there and crated, they are treated as nothing more than mechanical units of production, never as living creatures with needs and natures of their own.

What kind of a civilization are we when the lives of sentient beings become so meaningless to us that we murder them within a week of their birth? Where is the pro-life movement to help these most vulnerable of beings?

Here's a suggestion: Get rid of those obnoxious "Got Milk?" ads, like the one below with singer/actress Miley Cyrus, replace it with the image above. "Got Flies?" says the new motto. "Well, thanks to veal and dairy, they enjoy longer lives than calves."

Got Milk? Better Question: Got the Stomach for the Truth?

Kudos to the ABC television show Nightline, which aired footage showing the terrible treatment of cows at Willet Dairy, one of the largest dairy operations in New York state. (See the full story here.) I'm proud of ABC for having the courage to air this video. Those who insist the media are not doing their jobs when it comes to animal rights are not entirely correct. Two years ago, CBS featured a similar muckraking report on the harsh treatment of cows in the factory farm system (see the story here).

Do yourself a favour: Follow the link on the ABC News story. Watch the video. It's incredibly hard hitting. And hard to watch.

And while you're at it, consider the facts:

• Most cows imprisoned in the factory farm system are never allowed outside. Instead, they're forced to stay in dark, cramped, cold spaces.
• Factory farm cows routinely have their tails docked without painkillers, so the tail won't get caught in milking machines
• Many of the factory farm workers abuse the cows by hitting them, pushing them, dragging calves across the ground, etc.

If anyone is still under the impression that consuming dairy is somehow more humane than eating meat, then watch the video below.

Cows, like all other factory farm animals, are not ours to abuse, use, exploit, enslave, drag around, kill, etc. Simply improving conditions and making sure the cows are more comfortable is not the solution. And passing laws or enacting regulations to protect the welfare of the cows will not address the deeper issue.

To solve the problem, we must go to the root. The solution is to recognize that all animals have inherent worth and dignity, and all of them deserve to live in freedom and happiness with their families. Animals must be liberated. They've been butchered, scalded, mutilated, mistreated and separated from their families long enough. Time to put an end to such barbarism.

Not tomorrow. Not next year. Not ten years from now.

Now. The factory farm system must go.