09/28/16 Let's Protect Children, Victims of Dairy Industry Marketing!
On the occasion of School Milk Day Animal Friends say
- In addition to being unnatural and unhealthy for children and adults, milk is a cause of great suffering to calves and cows
On September 28, 2016 at Bundek Park, representatives of the dairy industry will mark School Milk Day -- an advertising program that first and foremost targets children of elementary schools. The dairy industry wants to encourage a mandatory consumption of dairy meals in the children's schools and their homes. The aim of the event is to present milk as a necessary and indispensable food which because of its "health benefits" should be implemented into the school menus.
At last year's event, organizers tried to attract children with a tied, living calf. Throughout their milk promotion, they've intentionally misled the children about where milk comes from and the fate of calves in the dairy industry. If children, innocent and fond of truthfulness, knew they were the victims of a carefully designed propaganda campaign, they would reject milk and milk products with disgust!
The dairy industry's intensive campaigns are focused on the constant deception of consumers by showing cows and veal in pastoral living conditions, on green sunlit fields. They portray cow milk as "the most perfect natural food," which it really is – for calves. The consumption of the milk of other species is completely unnatural, because mothers of other mammal species produce milk suitable for the offspring of their species before they switch to solid food. Humans are the only species which consumes the milk of other species and the only species which consumes milk in adult age.
Contrary to the deceptive marketing of the dairy industry, happy and healthy cows with untroubled calves do not "produce" milk. In order to produce milk, each year cows are raped so they can become pregnant by artificial insemination. After the calf is born, the strong motherly bond between the cow and her calf is broken very soon. Separating the calf from the mother is extremely stressful for those emotional animals, and it is followed by mutual sad and scared calling. In some cases of separation, mother cows after the separation show symptoms of anxiety and mourning such as depression, apathy and denial of food.
Naturally calves would be suckled by their own mothers for six months, but after their intensive fattening with food replacement in the first three to four months, they end up in slaughterhouses where they're used for the production of meat, cheese and leather. Their lives end in slaughter at the age of 12 to 20 months. Only 20-25% of calves remain alive for the production of milk.
Man turned cows into machines for producing ten times more milk than their children would drink, and currently, the animals are exploited for more than 50 liters of milk per day. Manipulated breeding for the hyper-production of milk causes foot deformity, lameness, very high rates of chronic mastitis (painful inflammation of the udder) and osteoporosis as a consequence of complete depletion of calcium from the bones. In nature, cows can live for more than 25 years. But after being exploited in the dairy industry, exhausted cows at the age of two to six years are sent to slaughterhouses. During the slaughter, most cows and calves are stunned by the captive bolt pistol at the front of their heads and hung upside down by both of their hind legs. Their throats are slit while their hearts are still beating. Their bodies are used for various meat products, livestock feed, manure and the leather industry.
Consumption of animal milk and dairy products is connected with intolerance to lactose (milk sugar, which results in bloating, pain and abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea), allergic reactions, increased risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and malignant disease (cancer of the prostate, rectum, breast, leukemia...), asthma, juvenile diabetes, sinus congestion, ear infections, resistance to antibiotics... Drinking milk because of the abundance of animal proteins leads to the loss of calcium from bones and osteoporosis. Because of the favorable ratio of calcium and phosphorus, vegetable sources of calcium are much healthier (green leafy vegetables, legumes, dried fruits, seeds, soy products).
Instead of animal milk, Animal Friends invites children and adults to consume plant-based milk (soya, oat, rice), creams and yoghurts which, besides being healthier and better tasting, are not made from the suffering and exploitation of animals. Besides that, the production of plant-based milk is ten times cheaper than the production of cow's milk.