Category: Farm Animals

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

Brazil: Beef giant JBS vows to go deforestation-free — 14 years from now !

Beef giant JBS vows to go deforestation-free — 14 years from now

  • JBS, a giant company implicated in multiple cases of large-scale forest clearing in Brazil, recently made a commitment to achieve zero deforestation across its global supply chain by 2035. Environmentalists argue this pledge is grossly insufficient.
  • In a new Soy and Cattle Deforestation Tracker, JBS scores just a single point out of 100. Its nearest competitors, Minerva and Marfrig, have scores of 46/100 and 40/100 respectively.
  • Tagging and tracking systems to ensure transparency along the entire beef supply have long been proposed, but JBS has resisted disclosing its full list of suppliers.
  • Under present conditions, Brazil is losing forest cover at the fastest rate in more than a decade, and this deforestation is driven largely by the meatpacking industry.

JBS, the largest animal protein producer on Earth, made headlines last week with a commitment to achieve zero deforestation across its global supply chain by 2035 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The Brazilian meatpacking company congratulated itself as “the first major company in its sector to set a net-zero target.”

But to experienced industry observers, this announcement is hardly cause for celebration.

“JBS has just promised at least 14 more years of forest destruction,” said Sarah Lake in an interview. Lake is vice-president and global director for Latin America at Mighty Earth, a global NGO that runs environmental campaigns.

According to Mighty Earth’s Soy and Cattle Deforestation Tracker, the first of its kind, JBS is linked to 42,538 hectares (105,114 acres) of deforested land in the two years since March 2019, with half of that area classified as possibly illegal. (Some deforestation is legal in Brazil.)

Mighty Earth’s tracker links cases of large-scale land use conversion to major soy traders and meatpackers that have until now found it easy to evade accountability for forest destruction. In partnership with Aidenvironment, the tracker scores companies out of 100 points, with 1 being the worst and 100 being the best rating.

JBS has the distinction of having, by a wide margin, the most unfavorable rating of the 10 companies tracked: just 1/100. The next-largest beef supply companies, Minerva and Marfrig, also from Brazil, have scores of 46/100 and 40/100 respectively.

“The climate is changing now. Forests are burning today. That JBS felt the need to make this announcement shows they are feeling the pressure to act; the paltry scope of the pledge demonstrates the need for us to keep that pressure on,” said Lake, who earned a Ph.D. in economic and environmental sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a dissertation on the beef industry.

JBS was founded in 1953 in Anápolis, a small city in Brazil’s heartland, by a butcher named José Batista Sobrinho. In 1955, Juscelino Kubitschek won Brazil’s presidential election on a promise to build a brand-new modernist capital in the middle of the forest.

A few years later, Brasília began to spring up just a two-hour drive from Batista’s abattoir. Captained by Batista’s sons, JBS has grown at a staggering rate. Today the company slaughters almost 35,000 animals a day in Brazil. Its global revenues oscillate between $40 billion and $50 billion a year, with exports comprising 46% of total sales. Year after year, JBS turns profits for shareholders by channeling the appetites of hundreds of thousands diners in the United States, Europe and China into the sacking of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.


“JBS has repeatedly made false promises regarding their deforestation agenda,” Lake said.

JBS had previously captured headlines and goodwill in September 2020, by announcing a purportedly new commitment to address deforestation occasioned by its indirect suppliers in the Amazon. But the announcement merely restates a commitment from 2009, a pledge it has failed to deliver on in the intervening decade.

“While promising to maybe someday save the Amazon, JBS and the other leading beef processors seem willing to butcher [the forests] today, making mincemeat of their sustainability pledges,” Daniela Montalto of Greenpeace told Mongabay last month.

“We would like JBS to publicly disclose suppliers,” Lake, of Mighty Earth, told Mongabay.

JBS says that sharing information on its sprawling network of 50,000 suppliers would compromise its business. But industry experts say that such openness will soon be an industry norm and expected of all meatpackers. “JBS can either help usher in that transparency, or obstruct it,” Lake said.

JBS has repeatedly been implicated in what is called “cattle laundering,” an arrangement by which calves are fattened on newly deforested lands or lands within Indigenous reserves and then transferred to so-called legal ranches free of the blemish of deforestation. From these ranches they are sold to meatpackers such as JBS who can plead ignorance of the origin.

“Looking at their direct suppliers only and then claiming they don’t have illegal deforestation is like me saying there’s no deforestation at my local grocery store and so my food is totally sustainable,” explained Lake.

“One of the main challenges for monitoring the entire cattle supply chain, including indirect suppliers, is the unavailability of the information that allows tracking of all supply chain movements in Brazil,” a representative of JBS told Mongabay last year.

That opacity may be all too convenient for JBS. Campaigners have pointed out that a tagging and digital tracing system — as neighboring Uruguay implemented with success two decades ago — would make full calving-to-slaughterhouse accountability straightforward. Others have proposed a more affordable system that would use existing veterinary records known as GTAs to similarly track indirect suppliers.

If such proposals have not been implemented in Brazil, it may have something to do with the outsized role that the beef lobby plays in government. In 2017, JBS’s controlling shareholder agreed to pay $3.2 billion, one of the biggest fines in global corporate history, after admitting to bribing hundreds of politicians, including three presidents.

Deforestation is not impossible to stop. In the first decade of the new millennium, annual forest loss in Brazil declined by around 80% percent. Various factors contributed to this drop: the deployment of law enforcement, effective satellite monitoring, pressure from environmentalists, and macroeconomic trends. Importantly, this reduction of deforestation was achieved while Brazil’s economy boomed.

Under Jair Bolsonaro’s government, that trend has reversed. According to November 2020 data from INPE, Brazil’s space agency, the country is presently losing forest at the fastest clip in more than a decade. At least 11,088 square kilometers of rainforest in the Amazon basin were razed from August 2019 to July 2020, an area the size of Jamaica.

Beef giant JBS vows to go deforestation-free — 14 years from now (mongabay.com)

Regards Mark – 14 years ? – at a time when there is no Amazon forest ecosystem remaining !

Typical cattle and meat producer.; typical Bolsonaro.

Farm Animals

Austria: injured piglets and rotting pig corpses

The “Association against animal factories” reveals: terrible conditions in Lower Austria pig breeding
Injured piglets, rotting children next to their mothers, cramped crates for lifelong pigs, fully slatted floors, and painful castration – criminal charges filed!

The “Association Against Animal Factories” (VGT)- Austria), has now uncovered a particularly cruel case of animal cruelty in Lower Austria: terrible conditions prevail on a pig fattening operation in St. Pölten.
Between 150 and 200 mother sows are kept here for life in crates and on fully slatted floors.

The agony of the pigs and piglets is unbelievable.
Dead piglets lie next to their mothers for days

Image: VgT

The little piglets show bleeding scratches and bite wounds all over their bodies. The reason for this is easy to explain: in performance breeding, pig mothers give birth to far too many piglets at once and the fight for the lower number of teats is inevitable.

Image: VgT

In the so-called “farrowing pens”, where the mothers are housed, there is no going back and forth for the pigs. They have to come to terms with the fact that their already decaying, dead children are lying next to them, who are only collected in a bucket days later.

Conditions that, according to the law, shouldn’t be:

According to the Austrian Animal Welfare Act, female sows may spend a maximum of 10 days for fertilization and only “the critical days” in the farrowing pen in the body-sized cages, the so-called crate stalls.

This law was apparently ignored in the St. Pölten company. Cobwebs show that no pig has moved freely here for a long time.

Eggs and tails off!

The male piglets are also castrated here without anesthesia. This bestial procedure is still allowed in Austria, but pain relievers must be administered.
On the video of the VGT, you can see that the piglets are being given an injection, but they don’t even think to wait until the effect occurs. They have to be given about 30 minutes before treatment to be effective.
Snap snap!

And as if that wasn’t enough? Contrary to EU law, the tails of all pigs were also cut off in order to ensure that the desperate animals do not bite each other off when the conditions are poor.

Fully slatted floors

Image: VgT

The annoying issue of fully slatted floors is of course “well implemented” here.
You won’t find straw or any other litter here. The consequences are the usual suffering of the animals on fully slatted floors: sore joints and injured claws.
Even a boar has to live on a fully slatted floor without bedding on this farm – but keeping boars like this is prohibited by law.

David Richter, the VGT pig expert, said: “Stables like these show, on the one hand, the legally permitted brutality against individuals capable of suffering, and on the other hand, it was possible to demonstrate how the already weak animal protection regulations in Austria are shamelessly ignored.
We demand effective measures to alleviate the unbearable suffering of the animals concerned. “

Here you can differentiate the petition against the fully slatted floors! https://vgt.at/actionalert/spaltenboden2019/

https://www.heute.at/s/schmeckt-dir-dein-schnitzel-100136331

And I mean… It is time for Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger, who is responsible for the criminal abuses in the animal industry, to step down.
The best thing would be for the entire People’s Party to resign, a party of liars that has long tolerated and supported this illegal situation in animal farms.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals

An undercover investigation about “happy cows”

Report from the blog of DirectActionEverywhere

In 2017, I entered a Land O’ Lakes dairy farm in California with a team of DxE investigators and the horrors I saw sent me on an unexpected journey. Was this farm just an anomaly, or was this routine treatment of dairy cows and their babies?

I couldn’t understand how the dairy industry gets away with such cruelty – especially a company like Land O’ Lakes that boasts about following strict animal welfare guidelines.

I have now gone into 14 Land O’ Lakes farms in California and Wisconsin, the nation’s top dairy-producing states.

With the help of more than 20 grassroots investigators, we now have footage proving that this company routinely violates its own welfare standards, as well as animal cruelty laws.

(It was only today that I realized that the video couldn’t be seen. The meat producers didn’t like it.
Through this link, you can go to the group’s Facebook page and watch the video).

https://www.facebook.com/directactioneverywhere/

We have a 2-minute video proving that Land O’Lakes is going out of its way to mislead customers. Please watch and share on Facebook or Instagram.

We’re reporting this cruelty, reaching out to company representatives, and sharing our findings with journalists.
The Fresno Bee just published a story about our investigation findings which you can read and share here.

Don’t be fooled by false advertising about “happy cows” and “pure milk.” There is nothing happy nor pure about the dairy industry, and when we take direct action, we can expose that.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this investigation on the ground, and to all of you supporting online.

Together, we are shattering the “humane” myth and making real progress for animal rights. If you can support this work financially, please chip in here.

Alexandra Paul (DxE)

And I mean…In order to understand that we are dealing with animal cruelty inherent in the system and that the NOT documented suffering is much, much worse, one would actually only have to add one and one together.

There is no animal welfare in the system of animal exploitation because the sentient being is degraded to a commodity.
But there can still be thousands of such videos, the meat-eater simply rationalizes this further as “blatant exception” and “individual misconduct” rightly.

And even if you point out crystal clear misunderstandings and errors to consumers, they’ll come back with their “free choice” the next time.

So, even after videos like this, doesn’t a meat-eater need to give reasons why not to be vegan?

So there is no need to provide an explanation of why animals are being forced to impregnate, imprisoned, deprived of their children, exploited and killed when they are not productive?

Then we are dealing with a moral declaration of bankruptcy.

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

USA: Introducing ‘The Mission’, A New Video Series on the Transformation Work of ‘Mercy for Animals’.

Introducing The Mission, a new video series that gives you a behind-the-scenes peek at Mercy For Animals’ life-changing work! The series showcases the impact that Mercy For Animals staff, volunteers, and investigators—and you—have in moving the needle for farmed animals and creating a world in which animals are respected, protected, and free.

Mercy For Animals works to eradicate our cruel food system and replace it with one that is not just kind to animals but essential for the future of our planet and all who share it. Each quarter, we will release a new video on a different topic related to this journey. You can keep up with the exciting series by visiting our website.

Our first episode features the Halley family, who—with the help of Mercy For Animals’ Transfarmation Project—transitioned their family farm in northeast Texas from raising chickens to growing hemp.

An increasing number of farmers want out of animal agriculture. Through Transfarmation, Mercy For Animals is able to support these farmers in switching from raising animals to growing crops. Halley family member Devvy Deany described her decision:

A couple years ago I decided to move back and help out the family with trying to find another way to make an income. Let’s see, you know, what else we could do besides factory farming and get away from that terrible practice of killing animals. And we were fortunate that we found a project through Mercy For Animals called the Transfarmation Project.

When Devvy returned home to her family’s farm, she made a pact with the family to transition the farm from raising chickens to growing a sustainable crop. She also opened her own dog sanctuary, Let Love Live. The Halley family plans to create a line of CBD oil to help rescued animals with anxiety, pain, and even hunger issues.

Mercy For Animals supporters enable us to encourage family farmers like the Halleys to help reform our food system from the inside. We will continue to bring you inspiring behind-the-scenes stories of this work through The Mission series, so stay tuned! Together, we will create a compassionate, sustainable food system.

If you’re not already a supporter, join us and start making a difference for animals (and humans!) today.

Introducing The Mission, a New Behind-the-Scenes Video Series (mercyforanimals.org)

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

EU: Animal welfare: Publication of the Evaluation of EU’s Strategy. When Do They Enter ‘Real World’ ?

WAV Comment – as we have said in the past, the EU is very good at making itself try to look very good; publishing endless reports and evaluations, but on the other hand, failing drastically to move on basic issues such as live animal transport.  What exactly did we see in the first part of this year when hundreds of live animals were shipped around the Mediterranean Sea for over 3 months ?-  Live Transport – World Animals Voice

Changing live transport across the EU, in accordance with the wishes of vast numbers of EU citizens; should be a fundamental strategy of the Union.  Instead, they ok Irish producers to export live animals to Libya, where they are ritually slaughtered, and the EU itself, as the biggest live exporting syndicate in the world, also export endless live animals to 3rd nations such as Turkey.

And what are we seeing and hearing about all the reports and investigations which are supposed to have been undertaken by member state Romania, with regard the capsize of the ‘Queen Hind’ after leaving Midia ? – Search Results for “romania queen hind” – World Animals Voice – where is the EU when it comes to member states not coming clean with animal welfare incidents ? – Nowhere, that’s where.

Here below is a new PR from the EU which has been sent to us today (7/4/21). We have followed this ‘Strategy’ with the ‘Evaluation of the EU strategy on Animal Welfare’ information; which you can further investigate (via links on the site) should you wish.

EU revealed to be world’s biggest live animal exporter. – World Animals Voice

Regards Mark

Secret decks found on ship that capsized killing thousands of sheep | Romania | The Guardian

Animal welfare: Publication of the Evaluation of EU’s Strategy

The European Commission has published an evaluation of the European Union Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of Animals. The report, which covers the years 2012-18, notably assesses how effective, efficient, and beneficial the strategy has been. It notes that compliance across Member States, which are in charge of implementing the Animal Welfare legislation, remains a challenge, in particular in risk areas such as animal transport, routine tail docking of pigs and stunning. The study also flags the need to improve coherence not only with the CAP, but also with fisheries, trade, environmental and transport policies, in line with the goals of the Farm to Fork strategy. The evaluation also pointed towards the strategic use of consumer information, international cooperation and CAP as relevant tools to improve animal welfare standards both in the EU and on a global level. The findings of the study will now feed into the on-going evaluation of the animal welfare legislation and inform any potential future initiatives in the context of Farm to Fork. The forthcoming review of the animal welfare legislation will therefore look at the legislative gaps identified in 2012 and at any new gaps that could emerge from the ongoing evaluation of the rules in force. Launched almost 50 years ago, the Animal Welfare policy of the EU concerns millions of animals. The EU has a substantial population of livestock including, at present, 88 million bovine animals, 148 million pigs, and around 100 million sheep and goats, as well as an estimated 4.5 billion chickens, egg-laying hens and turkeys.

Extra Decks Found on Capsized Livestock Carrier

Evaluation of the EU strategy on Animal Welfare

Following a recommendation from the European Court of Auditors (i.e. Special report No 31/2018 on Animal welfare in the EU), the Commission has started an evaluation of the EU Strategy for Protection and Welfare of Animals (2012-2015).

The outcome of the evaluation is published in the form of a Staff Working Document here:

This evaluation assessed the extent to which the strategy delivered on its objectives and whether they are relevant and consistent today. It looked at efficiency and whether the strategy usefully complemented national efforts in this field.

The evaluation found that the strategy contributed to setting common priorities that led to improvements on animal welfare across the EU. It also contributed to improve knowledge and sharing of best practices, as well as to enforcement of EU legislation in specific areas.

However, none of the strategy’s objectives has been fully achieved. The forthcoming evaluation and review of the animal welfare legislation will look at the legislative gaps identified in and after 2012 and will seek to make the animal welfare acquis more fit for purpose. As regards enforcement, special attention will be given to compliance risk areas identified by this evaluation.

This evaluation draws from a study carried out by an external contractor, which applied a mixed-method approach to address the evaluation questions. The methods used included desk research, an online public consultation of 13 weeks, targeted surveys and semi-structured interviews to ensure broader coverage of stakeholders. In addition, eight case studies were carried out to further support the analysis.

The study report is published here:

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Poland, Romania, Italy: New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation.

Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament: Inspection of lamb transports – YouTube

Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament: Inspection of lamb transports

“Well, if you tell me that these are still rather good conditions, then I don’t want to know what the bad conditions look like,” says Tilly Metz, MEP for the Greens. With her parliamentary colleagues Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz, she and our in Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament:

New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation | Eurogroup for Animals

Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz during the investigation

Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz during the investigation – © Animal Welfare Foundation

New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation

1 April 2021

AWF

The transport of lambs for Easter continues this year, three trucks from Poland and Romania identified in illegal conditions, stopped by the police and sanctioned

New images collected by the investigators of Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and the Zoophile Guards of ENPA, and released in collaboration with Animal Equality, show once again the transport of live animals drama, in particular for lambs on the holidays occasion.

In the last few days, close to the Easter period, AWF and ENPA, in collaboration with Animal Equality, have followed three trucks coming from Poland and Romania carrying thousands of lambs between two to four months old.

Three Members of the European Parliament joined the investigations: Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz, also members of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT), went to Italy to verify the real problems these animals face during transport.

The images clearly show:

  • Overcrowding, with animals heads pressed to the trucks roofs 
  • A lamb having a leg stuck between the metal bars of the truck sidewall (the lamb was never controlled by the driver, who should instead periodically check the internal situation)
  • Inadequate, malpositioned and insufficient drinkers 
  • Animals dehydrated and exhausted by travel length and conditions 
  • Lack of appropriate litter 

One of the trucks coming from Poland was stopped by the police and the driver was fined over 1,300 € for poor transport conditions, while another driver admitted that he did not provide the animals with water for the all duration of the trip.

All three trucks traveled over distances up to 1,700 km, reaching almost 30 hours of travel in terrible conditions, without providing adequate care for the animals. 

The trucks were directed to the ILCO slaughterhouse in Acquapendente, Palo del Colle, and to the town of Badia Tedalda, in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany.

Every year in Italy more than 2 million lambs are slaughtered, of which 300,000 during the Easter period. To date, most of them are imported on the routes of Eastern Europe, thus involving a journey full of suffering for these young animals in inadequate transporters, built for other species. Very often unweaned animals are loaded. 

“This is not the first time we denounce a similar situation, quite the contrary. We have been monitoring this travel route for several years now: it entails enormous suffering for the lambs”, the associations declare.

“As recommended by scientific bodies and researchers, these animals should not be transported for welfare and health reasons. Additionally, the fact that neither sanctions nor NGOs’ official complaints to the relevant Member States and to the European Commission have led to significant improvements, shows that there is a general problem with the implementation and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005. We hope the upcoming revision of this Regulation will put an end to these transports”, they conclude.

The Animal Welfare Foundation e.V. is an independent, non-profit, and internationally active animal welfare organisation. With our own investigation teams and animal welfare projects, we are committed to improving the lives of so-called farm animals.

Animal Equality is an international organisation working with society, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals. Our teams in the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, and India consist of highly qualified professionals with years of experience in undercover investigations, corporate campaigns, legal advocacy, and the development of large-scale education programs. Using these values to launch innovative projects and strategic campaigns, we work to expose and abolish the cruel practices of the animal agriculture industry.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals

The EU Commission’s new farce: Farm-to-Fork strategy

A “SOKO animal welfare” comment:

EU plan for the massive feeding of animals to animals!
The EU intends to radically soften the rules on feeding animal protein to livestock.

The main goal is to create a new kind of animal exploitation.
Insects are intended to replace soybeans and to be produced industrially for factory farming of pigs and chickens. Here, of course, it is pointed out again that insects would feel less or different pain.

This derogatory argument is also known from fish and marine invertebrates.
The goal is maximum exploitation with minimal consideration for living beings that we barely understand and whose sensory perceptions we have absolutely no idea.

The factory farming groups are already looking forward to it.
Can they sell themselves as sustainable at the expense of countless living beings?

The motto remains the same: They are different, they are alien to us, so they may be killed en masse just to slaughter more animals for a senseless and cruel industry.

Values ​​EU: One does not break this fatal and deadly cycle if one exploits and kills a further trillion animals.
Here you can write your opinion to the EU.

Make it factual, otherwise, they won’t take it seriously.

https://www.facebook.com/sokotierschutz.ev/

https://ec.europa.eu/…/have…/initiatives/11640-Ani%5B…%5Disation-to-feed-poultry-with-meat-from-farmed-insects-and-pigs

About this initiative- Summary

Since the enforcement of a total feed ban, in 2001, the epidemiological situation regarding BSE has considerably improved in the EU with no classical BSE case since 2016 and 24 Member States having a negligible BSE-risk status.

In addition, the Farm-to-Fork strategy aims at making better use of the protein and other feed material produced in Europe. With a view to addressing this dual context, the proposal mainly allows the use of insect protein and non-ruminant protein in poultry and pig feed.
The Commission would like to hear your views.

This draft act is open for feedback for 4 weeks. Feedback will be taken into account for finalizing this initiative.

Feedback received will be published on this site and therefore must adhere to the feedback rules.

https://ec.europa.eu/…/have…/initiatives/11640-Ani%5B…%5Disation-to-feed-poultry-with-meat-from-farmed-insects-and-pigs

And I mean...If we have understood correctly, should another factory farming be created for factory farming?

What will “insect breeding” ultimately feed on?

And all of this to keep meat production running.
Obviously, it was not enough for the EU that almost a third of the Amazon was destroyed for animal feed, it was not enough that insects are destroyed with poisons approved by the EU … now the meat producers want to feed animals with animals

Instead of really tackling the global problem of CO2 emissions at the root, abolishing factory farming, and creating a different awareness of life, the EU Commission continues to abuse and use animals for consumption and even add another species.

Ergo: even more CO2 emissions … because such mass production systems will certainly not be environmentally friendly and CO2 neutral …

Once more we can see how much power meat producers wield over the EU.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

USA: “I Remember Their Eyelashes”: Why I Chose to Stop Consuming Dairy.

With thanks to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ as always.  Regards Mark.

Our Compass | Because compassion directs us … (our-compass.org)

“I Remember Their Eyelashes”: Why I Chose to Stop Consuming Dairy

By Natalie Blanton

Natalie Blanton, Author at Sentient Media

I remember their eyelashes. Big, dark, doe-eyes, encased by long, wispy, soft, curled lashes on their innocent black and white bovine faces. Newborn calves were kept in a teeny, tiny individual fenced-in pen alone. As a young child, I was fascinated by these baby creatures. I thought it was quaint that they had their own little space, their very own tiny house with a front yard.  

I grew up in rural Utah and had friends who lived on idyllic “dairy farms,” you know, the kind found beaming across every carton of milk. Sure, I knew cows lived there and I knew “milk” and  “cheese” came from them. However, the exact mechanics of ​how​ eluded me. As I matured, and after enough games of hide-and-go-seek among these rows of sheds housing tiny young calves,  I started to piece together a more sinister cycle taking place. It was a gradual tugging on threads of understanding, an unraveling of a dark truth behind those happy cows on those happy milk cartons.   

As the winter melted away and spring emerged, new baby cows could be found hobbling about the farms. Taking their first steps only moments after being born, under the guidance of their mothers. My excitement turned sour as I got older and began to notice spiked nose rings piercing through these day-old calves. Hungry for their mother’s milk, the spikes stabbed her udders, leaving them unable to feed and bond. A human-induced rift, a divide, a playing of God,  separating a mother from her child. After a few days of this process, the calves were stripped from their mothers entirely. I will never forget the screams from the distressed, grieving mothers, and the cries from the terrified babies in response, now held across the farm, shackled to what I began to understand as “veal crates,” though I didn’t know yet what “veal” meant.  

In my early teen years, I became a Rodeo Queen. A rural rite of passage for gritty, yet glamorous young cowgirls. Among other royal responsibilities of a newly minted Rodeo Queen, I was tasked with judging 4H cattle at the annual county fair. I watched in awe as pre-teen kids paraded their beloved animal across the arena, radiating with pride, no doubt a genuine connection between the two. They adoringly hugged their animals, naming them endearing pet names like “Daisy” or “Buddy,” only to be auctioned off later in the night, at the going rate, pound for pound of their flesh. I then watched as these same children, while loading their pets onto the slaughter truck, broke down in sobs, viscerally connecting the dots between their beloved animal and the agriculture industry. After learning of the profound bond that can come from raising and coexisting so closely with another mammal, I met the dark underbelly of animal husbandry as we now practice it in this late capitalist system. I had to ask why these cows, with  their soft, brown and black fur without spots, were the “meat cows” sent for slaughter at such a  tender age—while the Holsteins, the ones with the Black and White iconic spots, those found on  those quaint dairy farms I spent so many hours exploring, were allowed to live and have offspring and a herd to grow and play with. I asked a nearby rancher there at the fair, and he scoffed saying, “Spots or not, they all end up at a feedlot.” 

The final straw in my relationship with dairy was when I was in my later teen years, and I was helping round up some of my friends’ cattle herd at the end of the grazing season. I saw a mysterious contraption in their barn that looked like some medieval torture device—little did I realize, that is exactly what that was—known within the industry as the “rape rack.” Bold of the dairy industry to acknowledge a machine for exactly what it was. All of these moments culminated right then and there, when I, a recent survivor of sexual assault myself, found that this industry was systematically and repeatedly normalizing the raping of these innocent creatures, all in the name of profit. I thought, Please. Someone. Make this make sense. 

The sexual division, male vs female Holsteins experience is upsetting, to say the least. It was always the male calves, who had no value in the dairy industry, were often kept in tiny veal crates, only to be sent to slaughter at barely a few weeks old, while the females were allowed to grow up—only to meet the same fate as their mothers: kept perpetually pregnant, in repeated distress from losing their children, only to be raped again—enduring this brutal cycle, repeatedly. I find it reminiscent of a dystopian sci-fi novel, or perhaps even The Handmaid’s Tale? But because they are animals and not humans, I was certainly being very dramatic now, wasn’t I? 

The pit forming in my stomach was almost fully grown, this pit of truth, knowing that what had happened to me, was not okay—and should never happen to anyone, ever. As a woman, and a budding feminist, I was learning the urgency and vitality of bodily autonomy, and consent. I couldn’t compute that this industry wholly revolves around the commodification and exploitation of a mammal’s reproductive system. Because, lest we forget, we are merely mammals ourselves. 

These vignettes in my memories are not the norm. These illustrations of Old MacDonald’s loving barnyard have been bought and sold, by Big Agriculture, since the industrial revolution. These scenes of black and white cows, leisurely grazing green pastures are a product of propaganda. And the current dairy system likens much more to a full-metal apocalyptic factory farm (industrial milking carousels). If such a place as these dairy farms still exist, they are more than likely not the source of the cow’s milk ending up in your cup. These images are tales of make-believe, and one that I fear we chose to envision to self-congratulate, or self-soothe, and absolve us of feeling the dread that factory farming imagery can bring to us—if we were only able to open our eyes. 

Industrial animal agriculture is a corrupt, abusive, exploitative system that wastes all lives, human, animal, and planet alike. Now, as an intersectional feminist, I can’t help but ask why not extend the tenets of reproductive justice across all spectrums of race, class, ethnicity, gender, ability, religion, creed, and dare I say, species. As a woman, I cannot ignore the inextricable ties to reproductive labor that is inherent in the dairy industry. And what angers me the most? Is that people continue to romanticize and idealize this relationship we have with “dairy cows.” Dairy is often the last dietary frontier. Dairy products are often a person’s last culinary holdout, but this is simply people fooling themselves into thinking that we have this gentle, reciprocal, loving “animal husbandry” relationship with the animals that are forced to produce the raw product—this misguided idea that cows naturally and endlessly lactate, continuously producing this magic “essential” fluid just for us, and all they need is for humans to tease that milk out of their udders, or else they may explode. Wrong! All mammals lactate for the same reason, for their offspring, not for anyone else. 

I fully acknowledge the damaging comparisons that have been made in earlier vegan feminist discourse, that likens these systems and structures to the abuse and disempowerment that is enacted upon female bodies. Mainstream feminism often centers and uplifts cis-gender white women and those with reproductive potential. I hope that we are collectively moving toward feminism that centers and celebrates equality for every woman. I dream of a world where mainstream feminist discourse does not exclude non-human animals. I am not at all attempting to compare the experience of women, Trans or femmes, to that of farmed animals—but what I am saying is all beings deserve respect and dignity. And these sacred bonds of fertility, conception, birthing, and lactation are what make us incredible beings, human or otherwise. I hope we can identify and celebrate these parallels across species, the immaculate ability to produce life. The most basic of bonds we create with our newborn infants are no different than a mother cow and her calf. The desire to protect, feed, and sacrifice, for our young and family ties. Expanding feminism to include non-human animals isn’t degrading our feminist movement, rather, I argue, it’s what’s required for the sake of compassion, empathy, and a more just future, for all. 

The ditch dairy argument is a tough concept to swallow, I should know. I held on, eating cheese and yogurt for years before finally ditching dairy. I too was heard saying, “I just cannot live without cheese.” To my defense, cheese sets off the same dopamine receptors as cocaine in human brains. Alas, we are but addicted lab rats (in a capitalist maze, one designed not to make us healthier, but the exact opposite). But, what I wish people would learn to recognize is that dairy is the reason so many of us are getting sick—we have sky-high rates of lactose intolerance, not to mention that dairy has been linked to many forms of cancer, and hormonal imbalances (human female youth are beginning puberty at younger and younger ages due to the increased levels of estrogen found in mammal breast milk being consumed daily). 

I read something once, in a distant theory class, that humans are superior to animals because our anatomy allows us to look up, skyward—and that these “beasts of burden” are lowly, conversely keeping their sights to the earth. I wondered if we had that all wrong, and should recognize that the creatures who center the earth, in all that they do, might just be the ones we might learn from instead.

I share this story in the hopes of expanding our circle of compassion. This is an urgent plea I ask you to consider. This is not meant to shame anyone, merely a telling of my story of why I made the choice to stop consuming dairy. These industrial food systems are decimating our planet, disrupting indigenous and natural symbiotic communion with our earth, and to put it bluntly, this is food apartheid. 

It is time to seriously consider weaning ourselves off of the teats of the dairy industry. Divest our diet and dollars away from antiquated systems of torture and destruction. If you have the privilege and access to choose what you eat, I hope you choose to reduce suffering, with every meal. I am only interested in a future of expansive and inclusive feminism, one that centers on all beings and celebrates autonomous reproductive capacity and sovereign motherhood. To this day, I can still remember their eyelashes. 

Natalie Blanton (she/they pronouns), MS is an activist and Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City. They work, research, and teach within the veins of social, environmental, and reproductive justice. Natalie understands our world-society to be built upon the backs of oppressed and marginalized communities and actively seeks to advocate, educate, and rabble-rouse to overturn that norm. In their past life, Natalie has been a rodeo queen, turned full-time animal rights activist, worked for multiple farmed animal sanctuaries, and as a community educator for Planned Parenthood. Now, at the university level, they teach undergraduate Sociology of Gender and Sexuality and Environmental Sociology. Their dissertation is at the nexus of Environmental and Reproductive Justice in the Intermountain West Region of the United States.

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