It took becoming a mother for me to realise how the simple act of buying cheese was resulting in unimaginable abuse of other mothers and their own children....
The first step to creating a more benevolent world begins on our plate and dairy is not a product of need, it’s a product of demand.
Up until 3 years ago I was a vegetarian and proud of the fact that I didn’t
eat animals — I felt good that I was saving lives by not eating meat,
unaware of the fact that I was directly supporting one of the cruellest
forms of animal abuse in the world. Like most people I believed in the
clever “Happy Cow” marketing campaigns and saw no harm in eating dairy
products. We’re raised in a society that tells us breastfeeding our own
child is unacceptable in a public area, yet drinking the breastmilk from
another species of animal is perfectly normal, so naturally we adopt those
sets of beliefs as our own.
As a new mum I fell in love with my body’s ability to feed my child with the
milk it designed specifically for my son, however the recovery from my
caesarean section was very traumatic and I began to rely on painkillers
which meant I had to stop breastfeeding. Instead of trying other methods of
pain relief, I took the easy way out and switched to baby formula so that I
could continue the medication. As a vegetarian this wasn’t going against my
morals so I saw no harm in it and already planned to raise my son as a
vegetarian as well, but when he was a few months old I started to make the
connection between humans and animals when it comes to the mother-child
bond. I began to read information and watch documentaries that disturbed me
to the core, not just about dairy but the egg industry too (I will get to
that in another blog.)
I always assumed that dairy cows lived in big open fields and grazed on
grass and lived long happy lives, because that’s what the food industry
spends millions of pounds a year on telling us, and a minority of dairy cows
do live in open spaces and graze grass all day, but not many have that
luxury and even if they do, they certainly aren’t exempt from suffering and
death. In fact cows experience a tremendous amount of misery and they
actually live very short lives compared to their natural lifespan.
Here is a brief overview of a dairy cow’s existence:
A four year old dairy cow arriving at the slaughterhouse after spending
her short miserable existence being exploited for her milk.
As a supporter of my local Animal Save movement I have witnessed hundreds of dairy cows as they arrive at the abattoir with tears in their eyes, foaming at the mouth from dehydration and covered in their own faeces after hours and sometimes days of travel. I’ve seen the pain, fear and horror in their eyes as they cry out for mercy and the only thing I can do as an activist is to share their story, to let the world know that they existed, that they mattered and that they deserved to live.
It took becoming a mother for me to
realise how the simple act of buying cheese was resulting in unimaginable
abuse of other mothers and their own children. I have the privilege of being
able to form an intimate connection with my child, an experience that these
highly emotional and intelligent animals are deprived of. I fail to
understand how any parent can willingly contribute to this level of
exploitation. These mothers are denied the natural instinctual right to feed
and bond with their babies as they are bred only for what their bodies can
provide us, and despite the abundance of plant based alternatives to dairy,
we are still having to battle against this unjust act of cruelty.
With major dairy brands now catering for vegans in every supermarket it’s
never been easier or more convenient for us to extend our level of
compassion and appreciate the motherhood of all animals regardless of
species. The first step to creating a more benevolent world begins on our
plate and dairy is not a product of need, it’s a product of demand. Every
purchase you make is a vote with your money and when you buy vegan you vote
for these mothers to be free, you vote for them to live.
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
0 marine animals
0 chickens
0 ducks
0 pigs
0 rabbits
0 turkeys
0 geese
0 sheep
0 goats
0 cows / calves
0 rodents
0 pigeons/other birds
0 buffaloes
0 dogs
0 cats
0 horses
0 donkeys and mules
0 camels / camelids