No, actually, cows do not need to be milked. After they give birth to their calves, cows’ calves drink their milk.
Oh, wait, we’re talking about the dairy industry. So, no, the calves are taken away from their mothers, given nutritionally inadequate milk replacements and then slaughtered and eaten as “veal.”
The cows would naturally dry up without their calves, but instead of letting Mother Nature follow her course, humans step in and assert domination. Humans attach milk machines to the cows and steal their milk for human consumption, even though humans have access to better sources of calcium than dairy, such as fortified breakfast cereals, fortified soy milk, spinach, tofu, many nuts and seeds, and dark leafy vegetables.
Moreover, humans have better sources for vitamin D, too, because vitamin D isn’t naturally found in cow’s milk. The vitamin D in cow’s milk is added later, just like it’s been added to breakfast cereals and some soy milks. But the best source of vitamin D is sunlight.
Humans continue to torture cows and kill calves for dairy even though the majority of humans cannot digest cow’s milk after age two because naturally, humans should be weaned from human breast milk and no longer need lactase, the enzyme required to digest lactose.
Humans then slaughter these dairy cows at a fraction of their life spans, often in a cruel manner. This sub-par beef from spent dairy cows is then sold to public schools and fed to American children.
For more on cow’s milk, the diary industry, calcium, vitamin D, and why veganism is a better choice than dairy, check these out:
- Shedding Light on the Treatment of Dairy Cows
- VRG “Calcium in the Vegan Diet”
- Plant-Based Calcium: Sources and Absorbability
- The China Study
- Common Responses to Vegetarianism podcast
- Milk Sucks
- Milk is a natural food, and cows naturally give milk, so what’s wrong with drinking it? podcast
- Go Dairy Free
- Vegan Society: Calcium
- Bones, Vitamin D, and Calcium
(Source: vegansoapbox.com)
