Accountability and Responsibility
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Notmilk.com
January 2014

Are you a compassionate milk-drinking vegetarian? If so, you will be responsible for the deaths of three animals. Like it or not, you must take responsibility for your actions. You might get angry at me being the messenger and for suggesting this, but look within yourself.

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.
- Buddhist Monk Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama)

Are you a compassionate milk-drinking vegetarian? If so, you will be responsible for the deaths of three animals. Like it or not, you must take responsibility for your actions. You might get angry at me being the messenger and for suggesting this, but look within yourself.

The average American eats thirty-five pounds of cheese per year. It takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. The average American eats 25 pounds of ice cream per year, and the conversion factor for America's favorite frozen dessert is 12:1. Factor in just those two items, and one needs six hundred pounds of milk to supply each American's cheese and ice cream "needs".

The average American consumes the equivalent of 29.2 ounces each day of milk and dairy products which adds up to a total yearly consumption of 666 pounds per American.

Each year, the average cow produces 20,500 pounds of milk. According to the U.S. Almanac, an American born today is expected to live for 77 years. In his/her lifetime, he/she will consume 51,282 pounds of milk. Assume that half of all calves are male and half are female.  The male calf becomes veal. The female grows to become another milk-producing cow.

Therefore, the average American, through milk consumption, will be responsible for the life and death of two+ dairy cows and one baby  bull.

Forget for a moment that a cow's body fluids contain virus, pus, bacteria, powerful growth hormones, allergenic proteins, saturated  fat, cholesterol, antibiotics, and dioxins. None of those things are good for your body. Your milk consumption is also dangerous for the  mother cow and her children. The slaughterhouse stun gun is painful. The knife cuts through the animal's throat, and the animal's pain is  horribly real. You, the cheese eater, are responsible for her death.

Two cows, one baby. You steal her body fluids, and must be held  accountable for her death and the death of her child.

We need, first of all, for there to be accountability, for there to be somebody who is responsible for enforcing standards and holding people's feet to the fire.
- Jennifer Granholm

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