| Since children learn to eat and drink they are taught that you must drink milk to grow up strong and healthy. However, children are never given the full story. First of all we are the only species to drink the breast milk of another species, and everyone still claims it to be completely natural, but the milking procedure is one of the most unnatural industries of all. Just as any other mammal, cows produce milk when they are pregnant and stop producing milk when their calf is finished nursing. To keep cows lactating they must artificially inseminate them. After the cow gives birth, a femail calf is either torn away from her mother to be raised to bear milk as well, or male calves are taken away to be slaughtered for veal. The cow is then hooked up to an electric milking machine and is milked twice a day off the milk that is intended for her calf. They are also injected with hormones so they hold twice as much milk as they are naturally required to do. After three months, the milk begins to decrease, and the process is started again. Modern day dairy cows are required to give birth every thirteen months. The life span of a cow is generally twenty years. However, the dairy cow will be slaughtered at age five and the industry will start with a younger victim. |
