Meat – The “Other Dairy Product”

Meat is as much a product of the dairy industry as milk is. Somehow, people seem to have forgotten what happens to the dairy industry’s unwanted cows and calves – and there are a lot of them. They are not put out to pasture. Doing that would cost money. Instead, they are killed and turned into hamburger meat and veal.

The days of the faithful old milk cow happily grazing in a pasture on the family farm are long gone. Today, dairy cows suffer terribly in giant factory farms and milking sheds, where they are sapped of their milk, their strength and their dignity. Every year, every dairy cow must give birth to a calf and every year that calf is taken away. Many female calves are dragooned into becoming milk producers alongside their mothers. The males – about three million of them a year – are hauled off and killed or confined to veal crates for their short miserable lives. When the cows are finally drained of their last drops of milk (having been forced to lactate for about 4 to 5 years of their 25 year life expectancy) they are dragged off to the slaughterhouse. There are about ten million dairy cows in America. Just about every one of them ends up being killed and turned into meat.