Is Dairy Farming Cruel to Cows?

Discussion in 'Animal Welfare' started by wgabrie, Dec 31, 2020.

  1. Polydectes

    Polydectes Well-Known Member

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    My thoughts are, they can't be cruel to the cow because it will harm it's milk production. Getting the most milk from the cow is in their best interest.

    If people think it's cruel to keep cows for their milk, they don't have to buy it. I don't think it's cruel. I have no ethical issue buying their milk.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2021
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  2. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    If the cow doesn’t consent you get no milk. Milk “let down” is triggered by oxytocin. If a cow is stressed or upset over something there is no natural oxytocin release and no matter how you try, you aren’t getting that milk. Cows WANT to be milked.
     
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  3. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    I think a bull has the best life of all.... Literally all his life consists of is wake up in the morning and go eat some grass or some grain maybe go hang out under that shade tree for a few hours and then go find you a cow in heat and make little baby cows.

    Of course one day when his usefulness has expired he will be turned into stew beef or glue or something but if you think about it the fate of mankind is really not much different. We all have a day we will die.
     
  4. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    I have a weird thought. How's about we not rush down any slippery slope but we not stand in hardened cement either. Maybe we could aim for a little bit of reform, a little less awful life for cows, and ask the farmers, suppliers and ourselves to pay a little bit more money for milk.
     
  5. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    Any ideas on how that could be accomplished?
     
  6. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    Good points.
     
  7. Green Man

    Green Man Banned

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    The cow does not have the worry that a wild animal has. The cow does not have to look for food, or water, or to worry about how to survive the next two minutes. The farmer is there to assist with birthing calf and to provide medical attention when needed.

    It's a leftist socialist utopia for the cows. It works for them, but not for me, or you, or us.
     
  8. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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  9. Chickpea

    Chickpea Well-Known Member

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    It's not cruel to cows.
     
  10. Chickpea

    Chickpea Well-Known Member

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    Let me elaborate on my previous somewhat terse reply.

    There is a farm right up the road from me. They have a system where the cows will let themselves into a milking stall, where they can enjoy some grain. A robot will attach suction cups to their udders and milk them. After milking the cows move on out. Each cow is tagged with RFID, and the farmer said that they actually have to block out some cows because they come to be milked several times a day.
     
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  11. Green Man

    Green Man Banned

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    Those RFID chips are great. Guy down the road says he can locate any cow he has got tagged anywhere and anytime. Not sure how it works exactly but it's very useful to the control and management of a bovine utopia. Very cool technology.

    ...until they start putting them into the general population of humans.

    Some people would take to being chipped like cows coming to be milked I suspect.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2023
  12. Green Man

    Green Man Banned

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    You left the meat out when you quoted me. But the song still fits to describe some peoples' mindset I am sure.
     
  13. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    It's a live song. An ode to a noble creature.
     
  14. Green Man

    Green Man Banned

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    The socialist leftist utopia milk slaves are not considered "noble" by their owners. They are considered chattel to be slaughtered when their usefulness goes. You don't feed a cow that don't make milk or beef. The leftist migh claim otherwise, for now, but history shows that when a leftist utopia for mankind is attempted people got to die.
     

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