avatarSusie Pinon

Summary

The article argues that feminists should extend their advocacy for equality and rights to include the welfare of dairy cows, highlighting the inhumane practices within the dairy industry.

Abstract

The author of the article contends that feminists, who typically fight for equal rights and the end of violence against women, should also be concerned with the exploitation and abuse of dairy cows. The piece details the standard dairy production process, which involves repeated impregnation, separation of calves from their mothers, and physical procedures like dehorning and tail docking without anesthesia. It emphasizes the suffering of cows, including the emotional distress of mother cows whose calves are taken away, and the physical toll of constant milk production leading to early death. The author questions how one can identify as a feminist while supporting an industry that perpetuates such abuse and calls for a reevaluation of values that either includes or excludes non-human animals.

Opinions

  • The author believes that feminism should encompass advocacy for all living beings, not just humans.
  • The dairy industry is criticized for its routine practice of artificial insemination, referred to as the "rape rack," which is seen as sexual exploitation of female cows.
  • The separation of calves from their mothers is viewed as unjust and emotionally damaging to both.
  • Practices such as hot iron dehorning and tail docking are considered viciously painful and unnecessary, reflecting a lack of regard for animal welfare.
  • The author suggests that consuming dairy products is incompatible with feminist values due to the industry's exploitation and abuse of female animals.
  • The article implies that true feminism should be intersectional, extending to the rights and well-being of animals, particularly in the context of an industry that profits from their suffering.
  • Consumers are called to reconsider their support for the dairy industry and to align their dietary choices with their ethical principles.

Feminists Should Care About What Happens to Dairy Cows

Don’t get defensive now; open your mind and listen

Photo: Leah Kelley/Pexels

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I considered myself a feminist. Equal rights among all individuals and living beings were never something that crossed my mind in my day-to-day life.

It’s shameful yet truthful. I attribute that to a lot of things—ignorance mostly, the blind privilege behind my “whiteness,” but most profoundly to me, the inability to justify the process demanded to get my food to the table.

So why should feminists stop consuming dairy? There are a lot of various definitions and subsets of what feminism actually is. Most of them focus on advocating for women’s rights and fighting for equality of the sexes.

Some meanings are tailored towards political, social, or economic aspects of feminism. If you believe you are a feminist, I’m sure things like sex trafficking, rape, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, and maybe even circumcision are just a few injustices that make your blood boil.

My question to you: Should our disapproval of these practices and crimes remain unacceptable only when it involves our own species? Why or why not?

The Dairy Process in its Entirety

Let’s start by conceptualizing the process of how dairy is standardly obtained across the globe.

Did you know that cows only ever produce milk when they are pregnant? In the conventional and current dairy industry, female cows are kept pregnant and lactating for the majority of their rather short lives, starting at the age of 12 months old, and continuing every 12 months for as long as possible.

A cow’s natural lifespan can reach 25 years but is significantly lessened in the dairy industry as a consequence of mass amounts of stress on the animal’s body. They are often considered “spent” and sent to slaughter around age 5 to 8.

Artificial Insemination — the Rape Rack

Cows are artificially inseminated on what the industry refers to as a “rape rack” where humans forcibly insert their arm into the anus of the cow. They do this to remove lots of poop and loosen the area.

Then, farmers move around the cervix with their hand so they can insert bull semen into the vagina of the cow with a long tube. I don’t know many people who would appreciate someone’s fist up their asshole, so it’s reasonable that cows don’t like it, either.

When the baby is born, they’re removed from the mama cow anywhere from a few hours after birth to 48 hours later. If it’s a female, she will live to be a dairy machine, followed by a hamburger.

If it’s a male, its sent to be raised for veal. After the separation, mama cows engage in what’s called bellowing or pining. This is a cry for their baby that was unjustly stripped from them forever, and this crying can last days, weeks, or months.

Hot Iron Dehorning + Tail Docking

Calves are forced to endure hot-iron dehorning and have their tails cut off, both most often without anesthetic and proven by veterinary animal experts as viciously painful procedures.

Dehorning is to protect the farmer’s safety, and the purpose of tail docking is to assist the milker, improve milk quality, and reduce the chance of mastitis—a common, painful disease of the udders, caused by overmilking.

Mastitis — a Disease of the Utters

Mastitis leads to the production of pus, and there are varying laws depending on the country that allows a certain amount of pus per unit of milk. Many dairy farms refuse to engage in tail-docking, but it is still extremely common in the United States.

They are also bottle-fed a milk replacer, to not waste their mama’s milk that humans regard as our birthright. Sometimes, dairy farmers will attach anti-suckling devices to the calf’s nose, which prevents the calf from accessing their mama’s udders. These devices are metal or plastic nose rings with spiked extensions.

This allows humans the ability to purchase dairy in its various forms with ease, and farmers to earn ample profits through the practice of sexual exploitation, which in this case is by definition — rape.

Quit Dairy Now

That’s the truth behind the dairy industry in a nutshell. Not to mention that cows are forced to live in their own filth, abused and beaten for the hell of it, made to live in confined spaces for their entire existence, and genetically bred to produce excess milk just so we can enjoy their secretions in our coffee.

I want to ask you how you can consider or refer to yourself as a feminist if you support the exploitation and sexual and physical abuse of a female from a different species?

Your milk came from a mourning mother. Your milk came from a female who was raped. She was repeatedly sexually exploited, unable to give consent, unaware of what she did to be so deserving of a life filled with unending pain and torture. This mother and so many mothers died for dairy.

Why should our values and morals stop at one species? If someone is against violence or sexual abuse, should that not apply to all living beings who roam the earth? It’s not something we think about daily, and I don’t blame you for being uninformed and considering yourself a feminist, whilst supporting the very practices that you are wholeheartedly against, and perhaps even fight with a purpose for.

Invaluable Life

Now that you’re hopefully somewhat informed and you still have an opinion that shouts the taste of dairy is more valuable to you than a mother’s life, then you simply advocate for human female rights, and not animal female rights, and maybe should reconsider if you are actually a feminist.

References (primarily from pro-dairy farming sources to show you that the process I’m telling you about is 100% true)

Thank you for opening your mind up to something you may have never thought about before. Feel free to leave questions or comments about dairy consumption or veganism.

Tap into positivity at Live Life Now, my new blog✨
If you liked this piece and wish to support me, you can buy me a kombucha here. : )
Feminism
Cows
Animals
Equality
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