The suffering of
farmed cattle and cows

Calf being pulled out by farmer pulling rope. After the agony of giving birth, the mother will not benefit from the reward of a baby. 

Veal calf, a product of the diary industry - born into pain, suffering, isolation and death.

You are looking at a newborn baby whose mother was not even allowed to clean him off before he was torn away from her.

They can't use him for dairy, so he will end up isolated in a tiny dark crate, unable to move (to make his flesh tender), for four to six months, living in his own excrement, being fed a low-iron formula (to keep his flesh white) and then slaughtered.

This will not stop until people stop demanding cheese, ice cream, and yogurt from bovine milk. For every glass of milk you consume, a calf is chained in a filthy crate somewhere, lowing for his mother, sentenced to become veal.

Veal calves on their way to slaughterhouse. They had a very short, sad and lonely life.

Cows, slaves of the meat and dairy industry

This so called weaning nose ring is fitted into the nose of the calf and tightened against the septum in order to stop the calf 
from trying to drink milk and to stop the reflex of nursing. This is also used in organic farming. 

A slave of the flesh and dairy industry gives loving affection to a cat passing by. All that she wants is to live happily, yet we label her as "livestock", exploit her, torture her and strip away her ability to live said life. 

She will spend her short existence being utilized as a machine to generate inordinate amounts of milk whilst enduring severe stress, pain and be forced to watch her babies taken to slaughter. When she has endured more abuse than her body can cope with and her milk yield grows poor, she will then be horrifically slaughtered, herself.

Milk-producing machines
In an unfettered state, a cow will feed her calf for approximately six to eight months. Milk is secreted at a maximum rate of about eight to ten litres per day, which the calf suckles on four to six occasions. The mother produces less than 1,000 litres throughout the duration of her lactation, storing approximately two litres in her udders at any one time.

In modern dairy farming, cows can be expected to produce between 6,000 and 12,000 litres during their 10 month lactation. This means she may be carrying in excess of 20 litres at any one time - ten times as much as would be required for her calf.

Exploitation of the reproductive system
The most common technique used to impregnate dairy cows is artificial insemination (AI). But, increasingly, powerful hormones are being used to force high quality cows to produce large numbers of embryos, which are surgically removed and inserted into lower grade females who then bring the calves to term.

Housing
Dairy cows are usually kept outside on pasture for the duration of the summer months. For the remainder of the year they are kept indoors, typically in concrete cubicle houses. Each cow has a cubicle to stand or lie in, which should have straw or wood shavings provided. Behind each animal a passageway collects urine and faeces, requiring cleaning twice daily. Accumulated waste is stored in huge slurry lagoons, later to be spread on the land.

Many cubicles still in use were designed decades ago and have become too small for the modern, larger animal. This has compounded welfare problems, resulting in cows standing in the dunging passageway. It also has major health implications.

Lameness
Around 20% of British dairy cows are lame at any one time. In fact, inspections of the feet of cull cows at slaughter reveal evidence of past or present foot damage in nearly all animals. Lameness is caused by a number of factors. These include the quantity of bedding available, the move towards cubicle housing and the now near universal practice of feeding animals wet, fermented grass (known as silage), rather than dry hay. Silage produces wet faeces and acidic slurry in the dunging passageway, which eventually softens the feet and causes infection.

Also implicated in lameness is the reliance on concentrated feed supplements, which are difficult for these slow-digesting ruminants to cope with. The result is the release of inflammatory substances into the bloodstream, which lead to a condition known as laminitis, an acutely painful foot disorder.

Another important reason for dairy cow lameness is the vast size and weight of the modern animal's udder. It is so large and distended that most cows simply cannot stand or walk properly.

Mastitis
Dairy cows are prone to infection of the udder caused by bacteria and other environmental pathogens entering via the teat canal. This acutely painful condition is known as mastitis. Incidence varies from between 30 to more than 60 cases in every 100 cows during a year.

Other illnesses
About 5% - 8% of cows suffer from the condition known as "milk fever". This is caused by the sudden depletion of calcium reserves each year from the heavy burden of calf-birth and lactation.

Many also get "grass staggers" from lack of magnesium in the diet. General depletion of nutrients caused by increasing intensification also triggers cases of brucellosis and viral infections and susceptibility to salmonella bacteria.

Cows would naturally live for as long as 25 years, but by the time they reach four or five on modern farms, they are likely to be physically exhausted, lame and infertile. These worn-out animals are sent to a slaughterhouse.

Beef cattle
There are around 1.6 million adult beef cows in the UK. As well as suckling their own calves, around 70% of youngsters born to dairy animals are also raised within beef herds. From the beef farmer's point of view, the heavier and "beefier" his calves the better. Specialist companies dealing in bull semen for artificial insemination (AI) provide the means to achieve this.

The most popular breed chosen to provide semen is the Belgian Blue. This animal carries a recessive gene for "double muscling", so-called because of the enormous muscles, particularly on the hindquarters. Belgian Blue stud bulls have to be born via Caesarean section because their sheer size makes natural delivery impossible.

Mutilations performed on cattle
Male calves reared for beef are often castrated, despite being slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity. Methods commonly used include surgical castration, tight rubber rings that restrict blood flow, and appliances that crush the spermatic cord of each testis - the so-called "bloodless castrator".

Both dairy cows and beef cattle are de-horned - a painful procedure - to prevent animals injuring each other. Horns contain both blood circulation and nerve endings, and so local anaesthesia and cauterisation are necessary to stem bleeding. If horns have already developed, they are removed with saws, horn shears or cutting wire.

Young animals whose horns are not established can be disbudded. A hot iron is applied to the horn-forming tissue when the calf is 4-6 weeks old, permanently preventing growth.

Disease
The BSE crisis was followed in the winter of 1996/97 by a serious outbreak of food poisoning created by meat infected with E. coli 0157 bacteria. Twenty people died in a series of outbreaks in Scotland.

More than 700 types of E.coli have been identified. They are mainly harmless and inhabit the intestinal tract of people and other warm-blooded animals but a few strains, including the notorious O157:H7, can be deadly.

O157:H7 is found in the guts of many animals, but mainly cows. The increased number of human cases has been attributed to the intensification of farming practices and the consequent widespread use of antibiotics. Studies in France, Sweden and Canada have identified a positive correlation between the cattle density of an area and rates of human infection.

Consuming contaminated beef products is the most common source of infection, but the disease can be spread by any food or drink that has been tainted by animal manure.

Slaughterhouses are an obvious place for contamination of meat. Operators are urged to ensure the animals’ skins are not covered in faeces, and prevent the spillage of the digestive tract contents during and after organ removal. However, in 2008, secret filming by BBC journalists found carcasses at a number of Welsh abattoirs which had been health-marked by inspectors yet were contaminated by feces.

Live Transport
Current EU rules allow cattle to travel for 14 hours without a rest or water. They must have a rest period of at least one hour after a 14 hour journey, after which, they may be transported for a further 14 hours. If the destination can be reached within another 2 hours then they may go a full 16 hours. After the second 14 hour journey, if the destination has not been reached the cattle must be unloaded, given food and water and rested for 24 hours. The journey times can then be repeated and this pattern can be repeated infinitely.

A number of organisations and politicians have created an online petition campaign to limit the maximum overall journey length to 8 hours. Whilst this would be a considerable improvement on current legislation, it is still a long time to be spent in a confined space with no room to turn around, lie down and without access to water. You can add your signature to this important petition at the link http://www.8hours.eu/

Source

The following presentation features footage captured by VIVA at dairy farms that supply Cadbury with milk.

nothing is sacred, not even the "holy cow"

PETA India's undercover investigation of several dairy farms reveals shocking cruelty to cows and buffaloes.

Throwaway Lives:
the massacre of pregnant animals
by Viva!

Calf foetus at the abattoir

Calf fetuses at the abattoir

How many pregnant animals are killed? 

DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) say that they do not see any justification for recording the number of pregnant animals who are slaughtered. However, a scientific paper published by the British Cattle Veterinary Association* reveals that 150,000 pregnant cows are sent to slaughter each year. At least 40,000 of these cows are in the last stages of their pregnancy and are bearing calves who may be capable of independent life. 

Why are pregnant cows being killed? 

90% of the cows are dairy cows and the majority of farmers do not even realize that they are pregnant. In the BCVA survey, 50.9% thought the cow wasn't pregnant and 27.3% said they did not know. Infertility was cited as the most common reason for culling an animal, followed by mastitis (a painful swelling of the udders common in dairy cows) and then old age. So some cows are being sent to slaughter because they are assumed to be infertile when they are in fact pregnant. Dairy cows who are over thirty months of age must be slaughtered and incinerated under BSE regulations. The compensation payment structure encourages the killing of pregnant cows. Animals sent through market are weighed liveweight and the farmer is compensated per kilo. If the animal is pregnant, the farmer will receive extra money. 

How are the animals killed? 

There are no special regulations in place to protect pregnant animals in slaughterhouses. Viva! has filmed in abattoirs and conducted a full investigation of the UK's slaughter industry. We found that stunning techniques are frequently inadequate and that animals routinely regain consciousness whilst bleeding to death. 

Each year, 5 million electrically stunned sheep regain consciousness before they die from loss of blood. 

1.8 million electrically stunned pigs a year regain consciousness before they die. 244,800 pigs a year are incorrectly stunned and do not lose consciousness at all. 

Each year, up to 230,000 cattle are not correctly stunned with the captive bolt pistol. They will have to endure the pain of being shot in the head and will then have to be shot again or knifed whilst conscious. 

Do unborn animals suffer as their mothers are slaughtered? 

The RSPCA's chief veterinary officer states, "The problem with killing heavily pregnant ewes is that if you shoot them in the head, the foetus does not die instantly with the mother and it is a prolonged and rather horrible death." 

After animals have been stunned, they are knifed and left to bleed out for 20 seconds (sheep and pigs) or 30 seconds (cattle). When asked about the slaughter of pregnant cows, Professor Donald Broom (Cambridge university animal welfare specialist) said, "After stunning and bleeding the cow will be dead. The calf will also die but a little later - probably 30-90 seconds" . This means that the foetus would still be living while its mother's front feet, head and possibly hide are removed. 

Nobody is sure of the exact moment when foetuses die. It is possible that they may still be living when the mother is disembowelled. 

Gabriele Meurer MRCVS, a former official veterinary surgeon in UK abattoirs, says, "What is happening right now in British slaughterhouses is quite simply a scandal. Sometimes when these creatures are hanging on the line bleeding to death, you can see the unborn calves kicking inside their mothers' wombs. I, as a vet, am not supposed to do anything about this. Unborn calves do not exist according to the regulations. I just had to watch, do nothing and keep quiet. It broke my heart. I felt like a criminal. I left the Meat Hygiene Service and the country - completely disillusioned and full of disgust." 

Is there legislation in place to protect pregnant animals and unborn babies? 

Animals are not supposed to be transported if they are likely to give birth during transport. However, Viva! campaigners have filmed animals giving birth at market when they were about to be loaded up for the slaughterhouse. The BCVA paper also shows that pregnant cows are frequently slaughtered in the third trimester of their pregnancy. 

There is no legislation to protect unborn animals in abattoirs - even if they are days away from being born. 

Christopher Day MRCVS says, "The routine slaughter of known pregnant animals in the UK should be made illegal forthwith, on humane grounds. In this country we make pretensions to be compassionate to animals. This practice is wholly inconsistent with such pretensions." 

What happens to the foetus? 

DEFRA says that, " The uterus and dead foetus is sent with the green offal from the slaughterhouse for disposal by rendering from any pregnant animals which are under thirty months when slaughtered. All material from animals over thirty months (which is the majority of cows slaughtered) has to be separated, stained yellow and destroyed by rendering and incineration." 

Is the government doing anything to stop the slaughter? 

When Viva! asked what the government planned to do to prevent so many pregnant cows from being sent to slaughter, DEFRA replied, "We do not believe that the slaughter of pregnant cows presents a specific welfare concern... We do not believe further legal measures are necessary to protect the welfare of pregnant cows or unborn calves." 

However, they say that, "Effective pregnancy detection lessens the risk of inadvertently sending pregnant animals for slaughter". The department is currently consulting on proposals to change the law to allow 'per rectum' ultrasound scanning in cattle to be carried out by, "trained and competent non-veterinarians as well as by veterinary surgeons." 

DEFRA has been consulting on these proposals for over three years. Consultation papers reveal that, "Concern has been expressed by the veterinary profession and some animal protection societies that use of this procedure by untrained non-veterinarians to detect pregnancy in cattle could cause welfare problems. Invasive techniques of this nature have the potential to cause serious injury, such as perforation of the rectal wall."  

Source: Viva!

Calf foetus at the abattoir

Calf heads. Unborn calves cut out of mother's tummy at the kill floor

Calf fetuses at the abattoir. Many cows are pregnant at their time of slaughter. This is the bin where unborn calves are discarded when they are cut out while the mother is butchered. They lay wet with their hooves still soft and are still attached to their placentas.

In addition to the trauma of still being alive inside their mothers during the latter's death, fetal calves may also be cut from their mother's womb while still alive--so that their blood can be drained for use in science, without anesthesia (see the page: fetal bovine serum or fetal calf serum) - the calf's skin is used to make 'high quality' leather.

The following German link states:

Fleischwirtschaft 90 (8), S. 100 -106, 2010

Schlachtung gravider Rinder - ethische und rechtliche Aspekte

Von Katharina Riehn, Gottfried Domel, Almuth Einspanier, Jutta Gottschalk, Goetz Hildebrandt, Jörg Luy und Ernst Lücker

Der Tierschutz hat in der Europäischen Union einen hohen Stellenwert, und die Sicherheit von Lebensmitteln im Rahmen des „farm-to-fork" Konzeptes der EU wird auch durch die Einhaltung von Tierschutzstandards in der Nutztierhaltung mit beeinflusst. Die Harmonisierung der Gesetzgebung bezüglich des Lebensmittel- und Fleischhygienerechts auf der einen und des Tierschutzrechts auf der anderen Seite haben dazu beigetragen, die diesbezüglich gewonnenen Erkenntnisse innerhalb der Europäischen Union umzusetzen. 

Für die Schlachtung tragender Tiere wurden in diesem Zusammenhang bislang weder im gemeinschaftlichen noch im nationalen Recht Regelungen getroffen. Ein Grund hierfür ist sicherlich die Tatsache, dass die Schlachtung tragender Tiere von Seiten der Kommission als ein selten vorkommendes, unbeabsichtigtes Ereignis betrachtet wird. Erste eigene Untersuchungen haben jedoch gezeigt, dass bis zu 10% der weiblichen Rinder in verschiedenen Europäischen Mitgliedstaaten tragend zur Schlachtung kommen. Ziel der eigenen Untersuchungen ist somit die Erfassung von Daten zur Prävalenz trächtig geschlachteter Rinder in Deutschland sowie tierschutzrelevanter Parameter zu Transport, Schlachtung und Schicksal der Feten bzw. ungeborenen Kälber. 

Im Rahmen eines 12-monatigen Erhebungszeitraums werden in diesem Zusammenhang verschiedene deutsche Schlachtbetriebe mittels eines Erhebungsbogens zur Häufigkeit der Schlachtung tragender Tiere sowie zu tierschutzrelevanten Parametern bezüglich Transport, Schlachtung und Schicksal der Feten bzw. ungeborenen Kälber befragt. 

Die Auswertung der Fragebögen von bislang 53 teilnehmenden Betrieben hat ergeben, dass in mehr als der Hälfte der Schlachtbetriebe regelmäßig gravide Rinder in verschiedenen Trächtigkeitsstadien geschlachtet werden. Der Anteil tragender Tiere an der Gesamtzahl der weiblichen Rinder macht bis zu 15% aus. 90% der tragend geschlachteten Rinder befanden sich im 2. oder 3. Trimester der Gravidität. Die bisherigen Ergebnisse zeigen deutlich, dass es sich hier keinesfalls um ein Einzeltierphänomen handelt, sondern tragende Tiere offensichtlich bewusst der Schlachtung zugeführt werden. Dies wirft die Frage auf, inwieweit die Schlachtung gravider Tiere der im Tierschutz geforderten angst- und schmerzlosen Tötung entspricht und ob eine gesonderte Euthanasie der Feten tragender Tiere im Anschluss an die Schlachtung notwendig wird.

English Summary  (original article is only in German language available)
  
Slaughter of pregnant cattle - ethical and legal aspects
 
The EU has the among the world's highest standards of animal welfare in the world, and the safety of the food chain is indirectly affected by the welfare of animals, particularly those the cattle farmed for food production. The welfare of food producing animals depends largely on how they are managed by humans. A range of factors can impact on their welfare including housing and bedding, space and crowding, transport conditions, stunning and slaughter methods. Harmonised EU rules are in place covering a range of food safety- and welfare-affecting issues, but a regulatory framework which governs the slaughter of pregnant farm animals is still missing. A need for action on this part has not been seen by the Commission yet, because it was assumed that pregnant heifers are only slaughtered in exceptional cases. 

However, first own investigations show, that the proportion of pregnant heifers raised in different European member states amounts to up to 10%. The objects of this study are  the collection of data concerning the frequency of slaughter of pregnant heifers in different German abattoirs,  acquisition of animal welfare relevant parameters during transport, stunning and slaughter, and  fate of the foetuses and unborn calves. For this purpose, a mail questionnaire was sent to different German slaughterhouses. 

Until now feedbacks from 53 slaughterhouses could be gathered and evaluated. More than 50% of the participants reported that they slaughter pregnant heifers. The percentage share of pregnant animals on the total number of female cattle is approximately 15%. More than 90% of the affected animals were slaughtered during last two trimesters of pregnancy.

Pregnant heifers in different states of gravidity are regularly slaughtered as the first results of our study show and questions concerning animal welfare particularly with regard to an animal welfare conform way of euthanasia for both the mother and the unborn calf have to be discussed in this context. 

To see the list of signatories of the above text, please go to the source

Leave cows and calves the f*ck alone!