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From: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: milk?
Message-ID: <497@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Aug-86 14:32:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.497
Posted: Wed Aug 13 14:32:23 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Aug-86 05:43:04 EDT
References: <495@water.UUCP>
Reply-To: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Distribution: net
Organization: /etc/notd (nonsense of the day)
Lines: 23

>2) if moral concern for the welfare of animals is your REAL reason for
>following a vegetarian diet, then you should seriously reconsider the lacto-
>portion of your regime.  Milk comes from cows who produce it in order to feed
>their offspring.		[Doug Dyment]
		    ------------------------------
    Today's milk cattle are bred (and fed, and maybe  drugged) to pro-
duce titanic quantities of milk, with minimal  relationship to calving
cycles.  The moral argument against milk in  the  diet should not rest
on whether you're depriving the calf.  A more promising concern is the
unhappy life the  cow  leads.  (I can't  really define "moral,"  so  I
won't sustain a question on my correctness in using the term.)

    We have created monsters, dependent on  us to empty  their udders,
incapable of   living  on their own.   The   same  goes for  chickens,
mass-producing eggs whether or not they're fertile.  These animals are
merely  protein factories, until they  stop lactating or laying.  Then
they're just protein, in the commercial view.

    I have no good idea how  to treat such  a question, and would wel-
come suggestions.
-- 
Oded Feingold    MIT AI Lab   545 Tech Square   Cambridge, Mass. 02139
{allegra|ihnp4!mit-eddie}!mit-vax!oaf  OAF@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU  617-253-8598