Life in dairy miserable – you can help

NBC Chicago from ARM Investigations on Vimeo.

An undercover investigation of the Fair Oaks dairy farm revealed horrific abuse of calves caught on tape. Richard ‘Kudo’ Couto, the founder of the investigating organization ARM, says the majority of abuse is happening when babies are forcefully taken from their mothers and will not eat or drink. The workers become frustrated, and they abuse the calves further. The babies are taken from their mothers so more milk can be had for sale by the dairy. Employees were observed slapping, kicking, punching, pushing, throwing and slamming calves; calves were stabbed and beaten with steel rebars, hit in the mouth and face with hard plastic milking bottles, kneed in the spine, burned in the face with hot branding irons, subjected to extreme temperatures, provided with improper nutrition, and denied medical attention. Does this news upset you? If so, there is a quick action you can take, and it is free. Stop consuming commercial dairy products. When we buy commercial dairy products, we are encouraging the breeding of more cows, which results in more calves abused to meet the demand for milk products.

Also, you can support your local cow protection project where cows are never slaughtered. Cows at these farms and sanctuaries live a much different life than those at the commercial dairies. To give you an example we are posting a video of Dhruva Laddhu, an ox who was saved from a dairy in December 2017 by ISCOWP members.

Dhruva Laddhu and his friend Kalyan Tamal were a few months old living in little hutches (just like the many hutches seen in the above NBC video) separate from their mothers and each other, fed by a mechanical milk drip before they were brought home to ISCOWP. Now 2 ½ years later, Dhruva and Kalyan are enjoying life as protected oxen at the ISCOWP sanctuary instead of a horrific life in the veal factory or commercial feedlot which was their next destination after living in the hutches.

It is not just the males who live in hutches soon after birth, but the girls are kept there also. Instead of being sent to the veal factory or crowded feedlot, they are eventually put in with the herd to be impregnated again and again with each baby taken and placed in a hutch away from their mothers. Here is the story of three rescued dairy cows who are now living at the ISCOWP sanctuary. This video was originally published a year ago.

Another action you can take is to adopt a protected cow. Cows can live till 25 years or more, and they are happiest when roaming and grazing pastures. Your adoption helps ensure their lifetime protection far from the tiny hutches, veal factories, feedlots, and slaughterhouses.

Thank you