Why Shouldn't We Drink Milk?

Today we will look into the question: Why shouldn’t we drink milk?

Have you ever asked yourselves why a cow actually gives milk? Cows are mammals like us humans and give milk for the same reason as women: as food for their babies. So cows don’t just give milk everyday and for no reason. They only give milk when they have been pregnant and have a calf. So cow’s milk is nothing other than breast milk.

Since the farmer wants to sell the milk to us humans, every litre that the calf drinks is a litre for which he gets no money. Moreover, cows are now bred in such a way that the milk has a particularly high milk fat content. The calves’ digestive organs are not adapted to this and the risk of infection would be too high. For this reason, the calf is separated from its mother shortly after birth and locked into a tiny pen, either alone or with other calves. This usually happens after 24 to 72 hours [1]. This separation is always traumatic for these social and sensitive animals.

YouTube — Traumatic separation of mother and calf

Why shouldn’t we drink milk? Male calves are killed after birth

Moreover, in the dairy industry, male calves are of no use because they are not capable of producing milk. Therefore many of them are directly shot, killed and disposed of. Those who are not shot are fattened for 3 to 18 weeks with milk substitute and then killed for veal. They are still babies and are hung upside down and their throats are cut. The veal industry would probably not exist without the milk industry.

The calves that are not killed for veal are sold to the meat industry to be killed when they are fully grown.

If the calf is female, it unfortunately does not really have a better fate. It is also taken away from its mother within a few hours after birth. Afterwards, it will expect the same martyrdom as the mother.

As mentioned above, cows only give milk when they have just given birth to a calf. This phase of milk flow is called lactation, by the way. After the calf is born, the cow’s milk yield increases steadily until the sixth week, after which it slowly drops again. The reason for this is that in nature, after a certain time, the calf is able to eat other food and does not need so much milk.

Repeated artificial insemination

About six to eight weeks after birth, the cows are then impregnated again [2]. Whoever thinks of happy cows and bulls on the pasture is unfortunately completely wrong. Insemination is almost exclusively done by violent artificial insemination. The farmer puts one hand into the rectum of the cow and then inserts a long metallic insemination syringe into the vagina of the cow with the other hand. With his hand in the rectum he then guides the insemination syringe to the cervix and injects the semen into the uterus [3]. This process is not pleasant for the cows and if you did the same with a woman, you would be calling it rape.

But dairy cows are not seen as living creatures whose needs count or would be similar to those of humans, but as production units that must achieve the highest possible yield to be profitable. Therefore, cows in the dairy industry are subject to a lifelong cycle of pregnancy and lactation. From the second year of life onwards, cows begin a permanent pregnancy. Like humans, they are pregnant for nine months. They are therefore artificially inseminated every year and are pregnant almost continuously so that they can give milk without interruption. On average, a cow in Germany has one calf every year [2].

Highly bred milk machines

Highly bred milk machines In nature, a cow would only produce as much milk as her calf needs. But dairy cows have been bred so selectively that today they produce four times as much milk. From just over 2000 litres per cow, milk production has increased to over 8000 litres per cow per year [4]. Cows are pushed to the limits of their capacity for milk production.

Why shouldn’t we drink milk? Pus and blood in your milk and cheese

In order to pump the milk out, they are connected to the milking machine twice a day. This overuse of their udders often leads to painful infections, such as inflammation of their udders. This disease, also called mastitis, is one of the most common reasons why farmers have their cows slaughtered prematurely. As a result, pus and blood get into the milk that people then drink. There is even an EU regulation that regulates how many pus cells may be present in milk. In Europe, milk may be sold with a maximum pus content of 400,000 cells/ml. And even if the pus is no longer infectious due to the pasteurisation of the milk, it cannot be filtered out. And the idea of pus in milk, yoghurt or cheese is not very appetizing.

Why shouldn’t we drink milk? Dairy cows are slaughter after only 4 – 5 years

In nature, cows can live up to 25 years, in industry they die after only four to five years. When their “milk yield” drops, they become too weak, they suffer more and more frequently from udder inflammation or are emaciated, they are slaughtered. This often happens while they are already pregnant again. So the unborn calf is also killed. They suffocate painfully in the womb.

So dairy cows are caught in a hellish cycle of forced artificial impregnation and involuntary milk production.

Year-round tethering on small farms

Also the keeping of the dairy cows is often not as the advertising on the milk packaging would have us believe. Because anyone who thinks that the dairy cows from the small farm around the corner are better off, I am afraid I have to disappoint them. Because around a quarter of all dairy cows in Germany are kept tethered all year round. This means that the cows are tethered in the barn all year round. This is mainly the case in small-scale regions in southern Germany. [5]

Tethering is particularly common on smaller farms and in mountain areas in southern Germany because of the smaller stock sizes. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and the corresponding regional farmers’ associations reject a legal ban on tethering all year round. [5]

About 70 percent of the cows are kept in so-called loose housing. These are praised by the animal industry as particularly “cow-friendly”. In reality, however, they stand on hard slatted floors all day long and suffer from aching legs and claws. In the mostly too small and hard cubicles they get calluses and abscesses. Also the cows stand on pasture only 5 out of 12 months a year. The rest of the time they spend in the barn. [6]

Milk and cheese are addictive

The reason why, despite all these ethical concerns, it is so difficult for us to do without milk, cheese and other dairy products is that milk is addictive. This is due to casomorphine, which in nature is supposed to strengthen the bond between mother and calf and calm the calf. Casomorphine is a peptide that is produced during the digestion of milk proteins. It is similar to opiates and has a calming effect.

Apart from this, there is a lot of evidence that suggests a link between the consumption of dairy products and a number of serious health concerns, including various forms of cancer, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders and osteoporosis (read more here). [7]

Conclusion: Why shouldn’t we drink milk?

Why shouldn’t we drink milk? The dairy industry is a cruel living environment for cows and calves. Cows are constantly being artificially impregnated. Calves are separated from their mothers and killed. And for what all this for? For milk, yoghurt, butter and cheese? Is it really worth it?

Have you ever asked yourselves why we as adults still drink breast milk at all? And the breast milk of another species?! No other creature on this planet does that.

And did you ever wonder who actually came up with the idea to drink milk from cows? You would never lie down under a cow and suck on her udder yourself, would you? And why do we drink cow’s milk? Why not pig’s milk, horse milk or dog milk?

We don’t need breast milk as adults. The fact that 75 percent of the world’s population cannot tolerate milk underlines this fact even more. We only tolerate it because we have been continuously taking in milk and dairy products since we were babies. So we have never really been weaned. The constant consumption of this waxy drink can also lead to health problems.

Don’t you think it is time to finally grow up and stop drinking breast milk?