Animal Rights

[Green Gaia]

Yes, but then how we get our veal?

Oh Spinkles...

 

[Ceridwen018]

Oh, I don't know.... maybe leave it for the calfs for whom the mother cow is making the milk? Cows don't produce milk unless they give birth. So if they are producing milk, there is a baby cow somewhere for whom that milk is being made, not for you or me.

Actually Maize, like nursing women, the mammary glands produce milk on the basis of supply and demand. This is how a cow can support her own baby, plus another adopted one which perhaps lost it's mother or something. That said, it is certainly possible for a cow to have enough milk for her own calf, plus (with the right conditioning) be able to make enough extra to sell.

As for producing milk only if they have a baby, this is also not necessarily true. A natural cow will continue to produce milk until her baby stops nursing. Just like human women. I used to know a girl who's mother nursed her until she was 7 (kinda weird and not the best idea psychologically or otherwise, but it is possible) If her baby were to continue to nurse, she would continue to produce milk. In a natural state, the cow produces just enough milk for her baby, so when the calf stops nursing, her mammary glands can safely peter out (with some mild discomfort, but that's the name of the game). For a cow who has been conditioned to produce extra milk, she cannot so safely just stop being milked, because her supply is so much more. In order for these cows to safely dry up, they need to be put on a special program.

The point here is that it is perfectly possible for a cow to produce milk for humans without neglecting her baby or causing added discomfort for herself. It'll take about an hour out of her grazing time everyday, but I think this is a small price to pay for being well taken care of.

 

[Green Gaia]

The point here is that it is perfectly possible for a cow to produce milk for humans without neglecting her baby or causing added discomfort for herself. It'll take about an hour out of her grazing time everyday, but I think this is a small price to pay for being well taken care of.

Possibly, but what gives us the right to hook that cow's teats up to a machine, pump her full of antibotics and hormones, take her calf away just hours after birth to make veal, just for a little milk? And who says the cows need us to take care of them?

 

[Ceridwen018]

Possibly, but what gives us the right to hook that cow's teats up to a machine, pump her full of antibotics and hormones, take her calf away just hours after birth to make veal, just for a little milk? And who says the cows need us to take care of them?

As far as the milking machines go, I'm not so much against those. It's simply using technology to help with everyday jobs. The idea of a cow being hooked up to a machine sounds inhumane, but with training the cows get used to the novelty of it, and the machines are designed to be as comfortable as possible (if they weren't comfortable, it would be much more difficult to get the cows to tolerate them). As far as antibiotics and hormones go, I honestly don't know much about these. They help do whatever to the milk we drink, which is good, but if they have adverse affects on the cows then that is definately bad. Do we know that cows suffer or are in any way adversely affected by the hormones and antibiotics?

Concerning the calfs being taken away, I also oppose this. I refuse to eat veal...I can't do so without thinking of baby cows and I don't want to support that establishment in any way.

In this day and age, cows do need us to take care of them. They can't very well live in herds on the streets of New York, and we already have an over-population problem with mustangs in the west. Cows have evolved into purely domestic animals--not because they are incapable of handling themselves in the wild, but because there is no place for them there anymore.

 

[Minoesj]

Hi,

i'm vegetarian.
I'm member of an online animal rights community and would like to invite all of you to join. It has a forum on the role of animals in religions and i (and a lot of others) would be grateful if you would add some of the great information you offered here.
http://www.animalsuffering.com/forum

As for me i'm defiantly into animal rights but i've never really searched for a connection with my beliefs (Christian)
I do not need a religious argument to make me see that it is wrong what we are doing with animals. But i do believe it can be important to make others see the maltreatment.