I have to admit that it took me a long time to realise why being a vegetarian wasn’t doing enough for the rights of animals, and this was largely out of ignorance, because I thought so long as I brought free ranged eggs and organic milk that it would be OK.
But in the end we’re still using animals for our own purposes, and the following information (which I got from the Meat Free Media forums) might help you come to a decision as to whether you want to choose to do a bit more for animal welfare or not:
In addition to having distinct personalities, cows are very intelligent animals who can remember things for a long time. Animal behaviorists have found that cows interact in complex ways, developing friendships over time, sometimes holding grudges against cows who treat them badly and choosing leaders based upon intelligence. They have complex emotions as well and even have the ability to worry about the future.
Researchers have found that cows can not only figure out problems, they also enjoy the challenge and get excited when they find a solution. In one study, researchers challenged the animals with a task where they had to find how to open a door to get some food. The researchers then measured their brainwaves. Professor Broom said that ‘The brainwaves showed the cows excitement; their heartbeat went up and some even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment,’ Cows can also learn how to push a lever to operate a drinking fountain when they’re thirty or press a button with their head to release food when they’re hungry. Like humans they quickly learn to avoid things that cause pain like electric fences. In fact if just one cow in the herd is shocked by an electric fence, the rest of the herd will learn from that and will avoid the fence in the future.
Grandmother cows often help their daughters with mothering duties, but one cow named Olivia wanted no part of that. She never left her calf’s side, and she ignored her mother’s offers to help groom him. Offended, her mother finally marched off to another field to graze with her friends and never communicated to her daughter again. Cows can also remember and hold grudges against people who have hurt them or their family members
Dairy cows are continually kept pregnant and lactating and their babies are sold off to the meat industry when they are only two days old. The life of a dairy cow is not as natural as you might think, especially considering that 80 percent of dairy cows are made pregnant through artificial insemination.
The only way for a cow, like any other mammal, to produce milk is for the cow to have a baby. The milk produced by cows is naturally meant for baby calves; however, because people want to drink this milk, the baby calves are taken away from their mothers when they are only a few days old. Cows are extremely maternal animals and both the mother cow and the baby calf suffer terribly from being separated at such a young age. In fact, one cow missed her baby so much that she broke out of her paddock and trekked through 8 kilometers of paddocks and rivers to find her baby. On dairy farms, mother cows can be heard bellowing out wildly trying to find their babies as well as running after the cattle trucks that take their babies to separate farms.
The baby calves life is then decided by their gender. That’s right, not only is the dairy industry hell for the animals, the environment and your health, it is also an industry that decides an animal’s entire life based on whether they are male or female. If the calve is male then he is taken away to be raised and slaughtered for meat. Because of this the NZ dairy industry contributes to the death of more than 1 million male dairy cows every year. That’s one death every 20 seconds. In fact, 55 percent of all beef in New Zealand supermarkets comes directly from the dairy industry. These male calves are transported to separate meat farms where they will never see their mothers again. They suffer terribly on their journey to the meat farm. Transported as young as 4 days of age, they endure cold and hunger, without food for up to 30 hours, while struggling to maintain their footing in the cattle truck.
However if the calf is female she is raised as a dairy cow, living in the same conditions as her mothers. She too will live in a cycle of pregnancy and lactation, being forced to give birth to a baby calf each year, only to have that baby torn away from her within a few days. In the wild cows can live to be up to 25 years old. But on dairy farms they are slaughtered when they are only 8-10 years old meaning that most dairy cows live less than half their natural life span.
Because dairy cows are milked so excessively, NZ dairy cows have increased risks of teat diseases like mastitis. When a cow has mastitis her udder may become so inflamed that it is as hard as a stone, and blood bubbles into her milk, which becomes clotted and watery. Severe cases of mastitis can kill a cow in less than a day.
Dairy is a very nutritional, healthy and natural food, if you’re a baby calf! Cow’s milk is designed to be healthy for calves, who have four stomachs, gain hundreds of pounds in a few months and can weigh up to 1000 pounds before they are two years old. Dairy products contain no complex carbohydrates or fiber but instead are packed full of saturated fats and cholesterol. Because of this, dairy products have been linked to asthma, allergies, heart disease, cancer and obesity. Dairy companies continually promote dairy products for calcium and bone health. However dairy products are actually quite low in calcium, compared to foods like soy milk, almonds, nuts, apricots, broccoli, figs, and tofu. In fact, one serving of sesame seeds has almost double the calcium as a glass of cow’s milk and one serving of soymilk has almost 100 milligrams more calcium then a serving of cow’s milk. Magnesium, Potassium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K are all required for good bone health. These vitamins are all found in a vegan diet. The only mineral that vegans should look out for is Vitamin B12. Vegans should either take a B12 supplement or eat foods fortified with B12, such as marmite and soymilk
There are dairy free cheeses, chocolates, milks, yogurts, pretty much any dairy food you can think of can be made vegan. For example try replacing dairy yogurt with soy yogurts like King lands, which is available at most supermarkets. Replace cheese with vegan cheeses like Scheese and Cheezley which you can buy at http://www.choosecruetlyfree.co.nz. There are rice, almond, oat and soymilks all available at supermarkets, just experiment with different types, flavors and brands until you find one that you like. Most people think that if they go vegan they will have to give up chocolate. This is simply not true. All of Whittaker’s dark chocolates are vegan, and you can get dairy free white chocolate at http://www.choosecruetlyfree.co.nz. Replace butter with dairy free margarine like Olivani, which can be found at most supermarkets. Literally anything can be made vegan. Nachos, pizza, pasta, casserole, stew, soup, burgers, hot chips, sausages, you name it there’s a vegan alternative.
The person who wrote the above has a website with lots of information on this issue and I’d really recommend going to see it: http://www.nzdairy.webs.com/
Here are a few more pamphlets… The view them properly right click on the files and select “view image” – really worth reading.
