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."

The Courage to Stare Truth in the Face

Do you have the courage to stare truth in the face?

If so, watch this video about how our dairy products are made. Even if you're already a vegan, even if you think you know what you're going to see in this video, please take six and a half minutes and watch it anyway.

Truth is not always easy to bear. To watch the suffering that cows and their calves endure is heartbreaking. Many people can't take these videos. They find them too grim. I recall reading a Blog post from one of my favorite vegan cookbook authors, Sarah Kramer, where she said something to the effect that she couldn't watch too many of these videos. She already knew what was in them, and she simply couldn't stand to watch them again and again.

Fair enough. Vegans have already paid their dues. They "get it."

But if you're not a vegan, please have a look at this video. Even if it doesn't stop you from drinking milk or consuming other dairy products, it is important that you think before you eat or drink. Know what you are taking into your body. Know the price that has been paid by living, breathing, sentient beings. Know the violence and suffering that certain choices entail.

Life is short. It's precious. And it means as much to a cow - or any other animal - as it does to us. At this point, I'm going to let the wonderful singer Kate Bush have the last word:

I just could not stand the idea of eating meat - I really do think that it has made me calmer.... People's general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk: the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn't go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn't by, it can make you think a lot.

Inside the Veal Racket: Yet Another Reason to Go Vegan

Nobody loves dairy products more than me. Whipped cream, ice cream, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, chocolate milk, yogurt - you name it, I probably crave it right now. But we have to face facts. Whenever we consume dairy products, we perpetuate suffering. Sometimes, this is easy to forget. Meat is easy to give up, but dairy is much more difficult.

This incredible video, made by the wonderful group Mercy for Animals, tells the truth about veal, and it connects the dots between the veal and dairy rackets. The video provides us with a glimpse inside the inner workings of the Buckeye Veal Farm in Apple Creek, Ohio. The whole process is profoundly sick and twisted, when you think about it. Cows are kept in a constant state of pregnancy to keep giving milk. Their babies are ripped away from their mothers so we humans can consume milk that is not meant for us. As this video points out, the calves raised for veal live short, incredibly miserable lives before they're sliced, hacked, butchered and slaughtered so human beings can devour their meat. As the Mercy for Animals website points out, the video

reveals baby calves chained inside 2-feet wide wooden stalls – so narrow they cannot turn around, walk, run, play, socialize with other animals, or engage in other basic natural behaviors. In such tight confinement, the animals are unable to lie down comfortably, breathe fresh air, see sunlight, clean themselves or bond with their mothers.

Think about how ghastly this state of affairs is. If a logical and advanced race of aliens from another planet were to land on earth and see this sick spectacle, what would they make of it?

Bob (The Price is Right) Barker narrates this video. At one point, he says exactly what I believe: "As a civilized society, it is our moral obligation to prevent animal cruelty. And veal production is both abusive and totally unacceptable."

Amen.

I remember eating veal parmigiana in my past life and thinking nothing of it. Like so many people, I lived in a state of denial. I did not connect what it was I was eating with those baby calves being hung upside down and having their arteries slashed open, bucking and kicking as their lifeblood drained out of their little helpless bodies. "There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation," wrote the great John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Steinbeck was writing about the horrible treatment of the poor during the Great Depression. He could have just as easily been writing about our gruesome and horrific treatment of animals.

Even if you think you know the horrors of veal production and how it ties in with dairy production, please watch this video because it will break down the walls of denial. The history books won't fondly remember the human race at the dawn of the 21st Century when it comes to our treatment of animals. But thanks to groups like Mercy for Animals, we are slowly making a journey in a new direction.

Great News From Our Brothers and Sisters in Israel!

You know me. I love to balance bad news with good news.

Now for the good news!

Israel, I have said many times in this Blog, is one of the leading countries in vigorously promoting animal rights. Israeli laws have long been strong in forbidding the worst sorts of abuses of animals. And, unlike what we see happening so often in North America, those caught abusing animals in Israel are almost always punished under these laws.

The Israeli Supreme Court has already banned the force feeding of ducks and geese, which was a real blow to the foie gras racket there. There is now a bill in the Israeli Knesset seeking to "outlaw the production, processing, import, export and sale of fur from all animal species not part of the meat industry." (Source) Passage of this bill would be a colossal victory for the global anti-fur movement.

And it was with great joy that I read this article, posted by my comrades at Anonymous for Animals, Israel's leading animal rights group.

Israel's largest veal-farm in Bazra has closed down

The owners of the farm, the Leicht Family, decided to stop the cruel production of "special-fed"or "milk-fed" veal. They announced that their decision comes in the wake of a public relations campaign against them and the new regulations that have passed following the pressure on the government applied by Anonymous for Animal Rights. The new regulations put substantial limitations on calves' husbandry and consequently on the production of veal.

The Bazra veal-farm became a prime target for animal rights lobbyists, because of its sheer size and the fact that it is located close to Israel's economic hub, Tel Aviv. Protests were held at the farm and animal rights activists gave water to the dehydrated calves (dehydration is part of the production method). Anonymous for Animal Rights visited the farm repeatedly for documentation, and filed complaints against the owners for ignoring laws and regulations, to both the police and the Ministry for Agriculture. The Leicht Family was greatly agitated by critical articles in the local press and the lasting public pressue, and even threatened to file a libel suit against Anonymous for Animal Rights, but eventually decided to stop the veal production. Part of the farm is being dissolved now and the last "special-fed" calves have been sent for slaughter. However, the Leicht Family's other business, raising calves by common methods, is continuing. (Source)

Chalk this up to yet another triumph for animals in Israel. Their example is one that all nations around the world should seek to emulate. (Note: The image above is a veal farm in Israel; the Bazra veal farm actually closed last year, but this is such a great development - one I haven't noted on my Blog - that I couldn't resist commenting on it. - A.H.).

Some Compelling Reasons to Steer Clear of Dairy & Veal

If you can spare two minutes and 17 seconds, watch this terrific Humane Society of the United States video about veal and baby calves.

This is actually a very mild video compared to another video about the slaughter of calves that I watched on YouTube. I am linking to the video, titled "Calves Slaughter," here because the imbedding has been disabled for it, so I can't post it on this Blog. Of the two videos, "Calves Slaughter" is much more difficult to watch. It's more graphic. It doesn't have narration. It relies on the power of the image to convince the viewer. If I could post it on this Blog, I would. But I can't. So you'll have to follow the link. Please. The video is three minutes and fifty seconds of brutality.

These videos are difficult to watch. No two ways about it. But I must confess: There are times I really miss dairy products, particularly cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese and whip cream. The other day, I yearned for something - anything - with melted cheddar cheese on top of it. That's pretty normal for a vegan who has spent most of his life as an omnivore. These are the foods we've loved our entire lives and giving them up isn't easy. It was easy to give up meat. It's flesh. I don't miss it one iota. But the cheese - oh the cheese! - was not easy to cut out of my diet.

Every time I get an itching to go back to eating cheese, I watch these videos. I can't say my craving completely goes away, but these videos remind me - in very emotional, primal, meaningful ways - what, exactly, is at stake here.

We shouldn't go vegan because it's the "politically correct" thing to do. We shouldn't go vegan because it will seem to cool to others. We shouldn't go vegan because loved ones are vegan and we want to be accepted by them. And while a healthier diet is a good reason to go vegan, it is by no means the only reason. For many of us, animals are the main reason we go vegan. There is not much in this world that I'm rigid about, but I am rigid in adhering to a vegan diet. I miss some of the foods I gave up. But these videos remind me that giving those foods up was the right thing to do.