Vegetarians and Me

A non-dairy farm affiliated person wrote a post to Dairy-L (a listserv for people involved in the dairy business) today:

Hello I'm very much encouraged by the messages about the informational videos (from Jim, Bill, Bob & Diane). I was holding off on my questions while checking to see if this was addressed a lot in the archives. Please let me know if it has; I will go back and search.

I recently gave up dairy/eggs/fish, yes, in response to animalwelfare literature and/or propaganda. I haven't seen either video mentioned yet, but plan to.My general impression of this industry is that the people are decent & conscientious, probably great neighbors to have, etc.I know there's tons of research on the welfare of your animals, which makes certainly makes a lot of sense.

Two questions, then:First, is this a "bad apple" situation? Is the animal rights movement only looking at the very worst places, without considering the majority of dairy farming? Maybe huge operations tend to have business decisions made by people who don't deal directly with the animals. If so, I might be happy as long as I stick with smaller operations, where I can talk to the folks in charge.

Secondly, I can't help but think that not being allowed to nurse your offspring is stressful. Just from what I've witnessed (no kids myself), it's clear that the maternal instinct is an overwhelming one.I can see the logic in preventing the bond from forming in thefirst place. And if the public is demanding milk & expects it at a certain price, I suppose the most realistic solution is to do it this way. I still have a really hard time getting past it, though.

Looking forward to getting some perspective on this,

Susan Cho Environmental science/policy student at Univerity of Md
4812 Erskine Rd,
College Park MD 20740

I sent this reply, in case you're interested:

Susan,

Thanks for a thoughtful message.

While there will always be rare "bad apples" who mistreat their animals, I think most of the objections of the animal rightists are about fairly universal practices in the dairy business. You mention removing calves from their mothers shortly after birth as one, and I agree that it is an unpleasant practice. Nonetheless, I do it. There are several reasons for doing it, including the health of the calf, but the biggest reason, I think, is that to have the calves running with the cows would be chaos. It would require huge amounts of labor to maintain cleanliness and to accomplish the tasks that go into feeding and milking dairy cows. It would make milk very expensive, and farmers pride themselves on producing food that even the poorest among us can afford.

Any anxiety produced by the separation of the calf and cow at birth is short-lived. It is not a hugely stressful event for the cow, and the calf doesn't notice. The cow soon forgets about her calf, and the calf bonds to whoever is feeding it. If left together, a much, much more stressful separation awaits the animals later.

You also mention the difference between small and large operations. For the record, I have a relatively small operation at 55 cows. But there is no getting around the fact that cows on large operations are, on average, more productive than cows on smaller operations. This isn't because the farmers are standing behind the cows with whips, but because, in general, these cows are more comfortable and better fed. Yes, the cows are more anonymous and receive less individual attention, but that is what cows want. If you want to see cows that are content, a high-producing farm is the place to go.Cows aren't "pushed" to high production, they are "coaxed and coddled" to high production. In general, there is very little suffering on dairy farms.Suffering leads to unproductive animals, and unproductive animals don't make farmers any money.

Lastly, I would urge you to resume consuming animal products, and here is why. If no one drank milk or ate meat, the cows on my farm and others would be condemned to non-existence. They would not have been born, raised, fed,or enjoyed chewing their cuds. It may not be a life that you or I would choose, but I believe that the cows would. If cows were rational, I think they would say, "Please drink my milk and eat my cheese. It gives me, and my daughters, a reason to live." The ultimate end of vegetarianism is the extinction of the animals vegetarians care about.

Enjoy your education at UMD. We visited a few years ago for Odyssey of theMind world finals and were struck with how beautiful the campus andbuildings were. Thanks, again, for writing.

Thomas F. Murphy
Stornaway Jerseys
Earlville, NY 13332