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Path: utzoo!watmath!saquigley
From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: Re: Moral Dillema (sic)
Message-ID: <8910@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Sep-84 22:03:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.8910
Posted: Sat Sep  8 22:03:40 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Sep-84 07:21:40 EDT
References: <2909@decwrl.UUCP>, <132100003@hpfcls.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 32

>Taking the milk from a mother can be construed as stealing food from the
>offspring, but with modern breeds of dairy animals which have been bred
>to produce more milk than their own offspring can consume this is not an
>accurate picture of the situation.
>
>				Bob Lenk
>				{hplabs, ihnp4}!hpfcla!rml

Having visited a dairy farm (in the guelph school of agriculture) a few months
ago, I am sorry (really! it was quite a heart-wrenching experience) to report
that you are wrong on this.  Dairy animals are bred to produce more milk than
their own offsprings can consume, but the offsprings do not end up consuming
their mother's milk.  The calves are separated from their mothers at birth,
put in a "nursery", which is basically a little white isolation cell, tall
enough for the calves to stand up, but not wide enough for them to turn around.
There they are fed powdered SKIMMED milk.  

I felt a deep sense of helplessness visiting that dairy farm as I realised
that dairy cows are treated as unhumanely as meat-producing cattle is.  Apart
from the obvious displays of mistreatment (most of the cows spend all their
lives in little cells, only moving to go from their cells to the milking
machines, and back, etc) one thing that really bothered me was the reaction
I got from a few cows I tried to pet:  a horrified recoil from me.  One could
see from their eyes how terrified these cows were.  I know for a fact, having
spend my childhood holidays in a poor farming area in france, and having
occasionally taken care of cows there and milked them, that this is NOT an
instinctual reaction.  The cows I used to know in my childhood were not afraid
of humans, loved to be petted, and usually responded to humans petting them,
very much like dogs would, by licking them.

Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley