There she laid on the floor, exhausted and terrified. She had just given birth to the most beautiful baby boy, and would have just a short moment to cuddle him and give him the warmth and affection a newborn needs. She knew this bliss wouldn’t last, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had gone through this 3 times already, and it wouldn’t be her last nightmare. Nobody paid attention to her pleas and cries, her begging to please let her keep her baby this time. Nobody cared, she had no value to them. She was a prisoner and a slave and as such, she had been repeatedly raped and beaten by her masters.
As expected, the men came back an hour later to rip her baby away from her. She screamed and begged, only to receive beatings in return. How can people be so cruel? Her defenseless baby screams and shakes, his frail body not yet able to move properly. The men pick him up and throw him in the back of a truck as if he were a bag of sand. He lands on something soft. More discarded newborns just like him. Some of them weren’t moving anymore, it was too late. He didn’t know it yet, but his short life would soon come to an end, and not a peaceful one. He would be shipped off to another house of torture, to be cut in pieces for his tender meat.
This is the daily life of a dairy cow…
If this scenario was about a human mother and her baby, or even about a dog, we would all be outraged. But unfortunately, in our society, we consider only some animals as being worthy of love and compassion, and we view others just as a commodity.
The other sad thing is, many people do not even really know where milk comes from (other than from female bovines of course).
Milk production requires the following stages:
- Impregnation of the cow: Don’t think act of love, think rape.The cow is being held so she cannot move, while someone sticks their fist inside of her vagina to artificially impregnate her. This is by no means a painless act.
- The cow is pregnant for 283 days, during which she is confined in a tiny lot, forced to stand upright, often in her own feces
- Once she gives birth she lactates for 10 months. Since her milk cannot be “wasted” on her calf, the male calves are usually killed right away for meat. Her milk is then stolen from her, to be sold to us.
- After 10 months of lactation, the cycle repeats and she is forcefully inseminated again. She will go through this horrific process for about 5 years until her body can’t take it no more, and is then slaughtered for meat.
Cows are extremely sensitive animals who form relationships with one another. They are known to make friendships for life. They are also loving mothers and undergo a severe trauma every time their calves are being taken away from them. The video below will give you a glimpse (nothing gore I promise):
source
Health implications of drinking cow milk
“Milk is healthy and provides us with plenty of calcium, which is good for our bones. Children need to drink milk if we want them to grow strong and healthy.”
I’ve believed this lie for so many years, and even after I reached adulthood, I was so hooked on milk that I drank it by the liters. I remember chugging down at least two large glasses of chocolate milk per day, until a couple of years ago. If you had asked me back then how milk is produced, I would have responded “DUH it comes from cows”. But I did not know all the information provided in this post.
Dairy cows are prone to contract and infection called Mastitis, which is an inflammation of the mammary glands. E-coli is one of the many bacteria that can cause the disease, and as a result, the cow’s body will produce white blood cells also commonly known as pus. Pus is present in the milk that is produced and sold to consumers, and according to PETA,
The SCC of healthy milk is below 100,000 cells per milliliter; however, the dairy industry is allowed to combine milk from all the cows in a herd in order to arrive at a “bulk tank” somatic cell count (BTSCC).13 Milk with a maximum BTSCC of 750,000 cells per milliliter can be sold.14 A BTSCC of 700,000 or more generally indicates that two-thirds of the cows in the herd are suffering from udder infections.
- Milk consumption is linked to osteoporosis in women (thus not so healthy for our bones!)
- Milk is linked to food allergies with symptoms such as asthma, cramps, bloating, indigestion, rashes and headaches.
- Milk consumption is linked to higher ovarian cancer risk
- Milk is found to be responsible for acne, constipation and even type 1 diabetes
What to make of all this?
Sources
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/cows-milk-cruel-unhealthy-product/
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5235185/the-life-of-dairy-cows.pdf
https://nutritionstudies.org/12-frightening-facts-milk/
It’s posts like this that remind me why I stay vegan. Some days I am weak and tell myself it wouldn’t be a big deal if I just had a slice of pizza or chocolate that wasn’t vegan, but I know too much to put my taste buds above someone else’s suffering. I will forever be heart broken until this changes. I will never understand how this is acceptable to do to one being but not to another. Very well written post, I love how you put it into perspective without revealing right from the beginning who or what this was happening to.
Thank you so much for stopping by Jennifer! I''m glad you liked it! Yes, I tried to make it hard to see that I'm talking about a cow at first. My intention was people get hooked on the title and first paragraph before they realize it's a vegan post LOL. Hope to see you in our vegan discord channel!
Just got the app 😊
Great post. I also wrote a short poem that describes the mothers loss! My health changed hugely once I cut out dairy. My eldest son has far less acne since cutting out dairy too.
oh you did? I will check it out!
I personally don't feel any different after ditching dairy, although maybe I'm a little less congested now.
The first part had me shaking and the 2nd part revolted. I was a huge milk drinker as well before but had switched lately to Soy milk.
Almond milk is a bit expensive here.
ah I'm glad that it provoked that emotion in your @maverickinvictus! And even more happy to hear that you don't drink cows milk =). Here almond milk is expensive too...I use rice and soy milk more often and they are just as good ==)
Also try hemp milk, I love it for my coffee!
Great post @evecab !
Thank you for sharing. Will share too
So true, so sad... :( Thanks for spreading the word Eve.
welcome @phortun =) Thanks for stopping by!!
That's so heart breaking watching the poor cow chase after her calf.
yes it's awful =(
Ouf this is such a emotional subject to me. My heat eaches for all the mothers out there who lost a baby.
And that video makes me so sad for several reasons.
The first is of course because she is chasing after her poor baby that is taken away from her.
The second is that she can hardly run with her udder being so unnaturally big.
It's so sad what humans do to these precious animals :(
I know, it's extremely cruel. I cried while I was writing it... =( I had seen that video a while ago and it is stuck in my head...
I'm happy you found the strength to write it. It is so important to spread the message from any angle possible <3
Oh I almost start crying reading this. It is such a cruel heartless industry. I started to realise what it means for humans to drink milk from cows when I gave birth to my baby and started breastfeeding him. How can it be possible that it is considered as normal for HUMANS to drink mother milk from an other species? But most of us people dont think it that way, they only see the product and love the taste! Because sure it taste great! More and more people starts to realise what is happening behind the diary and meat industry. Thanks for sharing dear!
thanks @vegan.niinja =). My goal was to make people sad...however not vegans, I want to make omnis sad =) Hopefully it will work!
I am sure it works!❤❤❤
Hi @evecab!
I'm happy to include this post in the CTR Crossword Puzzle No.-16. This post has been resteemed from my account to all my followers. All participants for this puzzle will land on this post to find their answers to it.
Thank you for creating awesome content which is just perfect for our participants!
P.S.:
Hey, all readers of this post! If you want to participate in this contest, you’ve got a slight edge over others as you have already read this post. All of you are welcome to participate and have fun. Check the posts containing hints for the Crossword Puzzle here.
oh wow @xyzashu, that's great! Thank you so much for including my post =) I will go check it out! Feel free to stop by anytime and maybe see you on our vegan discord =)
Amazing post @evecab, really creative intro. That video is tragic.
Thank you! I wanted readers to feel the emotion before knowing that I'm talking about a cow =) I hope it worked
This makes me want to become vegan. What a great way to showcase how cows feel! Upvoted :)
Wow this one gets you hooked right off the bat! I was very surprised about how this is actually about cows! I have vegan friends and I've been trying to eat less and less meat all the time. I have almost given up red meat but not quite. Great post!
thank you @falseyedols! I'm glad the deception worked LOL =) Thanks for stopping by!
you can do it! =) It took me a while for me but finally no more and I am so proud of it!
I think I'll get closer and closer until I'm almost completely vegan. My friend and his wife have gone vegan and he's made me some amazing foods I couldn't believe were vegan. More and more tasty options :)
I feel like there is a terrible resemblance between what is happening to cows in dairy farms and what happens to women in Margaret Atwood's dystopia "The Handmaid's Tale"... Although it's usually related to feminism, I feel like making the parallel would be very (if not more) pertinent. Your short story at the beginning made me think of it.
Thanks for spreading the information on dairy, the world desperately needs it.
thank you very much @amelierbln! I had to google it because I hadn't hear do f it before, but I'd like to read it! I'm glad you liked it =)
The creativity in masking the true topic took me to a whole nother place and brought me back to a wow reality this is amazing penmanship
I'm glad you enjoyed it, @cgbartow =) Thanks for stopping by!