Dairy Destroys Families: Pledge to Go Dairy-Free Today!
There’s no doubt about it; the dairy industry is one of the most destructive industries on the planet. From stealing terrified newborn babies away from mother cows, contributing massive amounts of greenhouse gases, and causing life-threatening diseases in humans, dairy production wreaks havoc on animals, the planet, and our families. Take the dairy-free pledge to do your part to stop dairy-caused destruction!
ANIMALS
There are roughly 270 million dairy cows on earth. Like all mammals, female cows only produce milk when they are pregnant. Many are confined to tiny stalls on dairy farms, exposed to extreme temperatures, and repeatedly impregnated against their will. Their babies are taken from them immediately or soon after giving birth. This is the true cost of dairy. To “save” cow’s milk to sell for human consumption, dairy farmers must remove calves from their natural families. Mother cows experience severe depression and grieve the loss of their babies for months.
The United States Department of Agriculture indicates that terrified male calves born on dairy farms are separated from their mothers within three days of birth. They are sentenced to short, miserable lives in tiny crates so small they can only stand or lay down. Farmers restrict their movement so their young muscles can’t develop or toughen up, so they can kill them and sell their bodies for veal.
In other intensive dairy farming countries such as Aotearoa, New Zealand, an average of 1.9 million four-day-old calves, known as “bobby calves,” are slaughtered each year. Most of these babies are born male and considered waste products of the industry.
These calves are deliberately bred into existence only to be killed so their mothers will produce milk for another species. While local governing bodies claim this is to feed their nation, approximately 95% of milk produced in Aotearoa is exported to foreign markets.
Female calves are sentenced to the same bleak fate as their mothers, forced to suffer through the brutal process of artificial insemination to produce babies and milk until it is their turn to be slaughtered. Farmers may also shoot calves if they decide they won’t profit from exploiting them.
Dairy cows are forcibly impregnated and subjected to a torturous cycle of immense loss, fear, and pain over and over again. Cows have a natural lifespan of 15-20 years; however, once a cow’s milk production drops below the expected yield, they are no longer of value to dairy farmers. For many, this means that at around five years of age, they become one of the billions of animals capable of experiencing pain, joy, and love whose lives are cut drastically short at slaughter. But a longer life is not necessarily a happier life for a dairy cow. Those who are spared remain trapped in the industry, caught in the barbaric cycle of insemination, birth, and the inevitable abduction of up to ten babies over the course of their lifetime.
ENVIRONMENT
The unthinkable cruelty to animals is bad enough, but the milk-fueled destruction doesn’t stop there. The production of these products also wreaks havoc on the environment and threatens the planet’s survival.
Like all animals, dairy cows need food and water to survive. A lactating dairy cow in the United States drinks 30-50 gallons of water per day, more than any other land-based mammal. A staggering 144 gallons of water is used to produce 1 gallon of milk, and more than 93% of that water is used to grow feed for dairy cattle. A dairy cow in the US eats 100 pounds of feed a day.
