Cattle
After the first six months of life, beef cattle are rounded up and shipped long distances to
feedlots where they are kept in small enclosures (about 14 square feet).
Here they are 'finished' - or brought up to market weight and condition
by being fed a more concentrated diet than can be obtained from grass.
Cattle do not have the
stomachs for this rich diet and without the use of antibiotics their systems couldn't tolerate
this type of feed.
All dairy cows must be impregnated for them to begin producing milk.
Therefore, even though they have the same nine-month gestation period as humans, dairy cows are
forced to give birth every year.
Additionally, genetic manipulation, growth hormones, and intensive production techniques have
made it possible for dairy cows to increase milk production.
As a result of these unnaturally manipulations, dairy cow's bodies are under constant stress,
and often develop numerous health problems, such as metabolic disorders, mastitis, joint
disorders, and a dairy industry disease called 'Milk Fever'.
Unwanted male calves, a by-product of the dairy industry, are used to produce veal.
Newborn calves are taken
straight from their mothers and confined in wooden stalls, tethered by a chain around their
neck.
Instead of gamboling in a field, these young animals have their movement severely restricted in
order to prevent muscle development and speed weight gain.
The calves live in these stalls for the next 13 to 15 weeks and only leave the stall when
it is time for slaughter.
To make them 'easier to handle,' steers are routinely, and painfully, castrated and de-horned
without anesthesia.
If the cows survive the trip to the slaughterhouse, which can often mean long, crowded truck
rides in roasting hot or sub-freezing weather, they face workers who cannot recognize their own
inhumanity, let alone the suffering of another creature.
Many face an especially brutal death,
including being skinned and dismembered while conscious.
The lifespan of a cow should be 18-25 years.
The lifespan of a dairy cow is 4-6 years.
A beef cow 1-2 years.
Veal calves live only 4 months before they are slaughtered.
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