Is there any animal that can produce milk without first becoming pregnant?

Question

I don't consume dairy because of the cruelties of the milk industry, wherein, milk producing animals are kept pregnant so as to keep producing milk. Male offspring are by-product of that process and soon become veal. It's a long shot, but perhaps there is an animal that (through breeding or natural occurence) produces milk without having to be pregnant or nursing.

Similar to domestic chickens, which have been bred to produce almost one egg a day without impregnation (originally producing less that one a year in the wild).

Answer 1

most mammals can wet nurse (nursing an adopted child) but as far as producing enough for dairy production none that I know of.

Answer 2

It is easier if the animal has been pregnant in the past, just stimulating the nipple can do it.  But with the right hormones even males can lactate.  

Getting a cow pregnant is cheap and produces more cows as a by-product.  I don't think anyone will be developing pregnancy free milk production any time soon.

Answer 3

Mammals have to have offspring first - it's just the way it is.

Unless you inject it with an incredible amount of hormones and stuff

Answer 4

no, animals (mammals ) produce milk to feed young.

but i bet the frankestien's at Monsanto are working on it.....

"Similar to domestic chickens, which have been bred to produce almost one egg a day without impregnation (originally producing less that one a year in the wild)."

Sorry, but thats just not true. Chickens have not been breed from an original point of one egg per year. All the original pure breeds produce about 80-200 eggs per year.

Hybrids produce more, at a more reliable rate and a consistant size.

Chickens cannot be "impregnated", cockeral, dispite their name, have a vent, not an apendage capable of "impregnation".

There are more issues than just the male offspring being used for veal, try these:

Artificial insemination every year

Dairy farms artificially inceminate cows every 11 months. Naturally, cows will vary this up to 3 years according to climate, health, season etc. This can cause excessive stress on the cows body, increses the chance of prolapse and generally "wears them out" in a few years, rather than a natural 15-20 years.

Protein enriched feed

The feed they are given is enriched with artificial growth foods. these are generally made with cattle meat protiens.

In the USA and some parts of Austrailasia they use a hormone growth agent called recombinant bovine somatotropin. Its brand name is POSILAC® and its made by Monsanto. This increases milk yield and beef growth. This is a synthetic hormone. Its banned in the EU since 1988

The main mechanism these hormones work is by re-directing dietry nutrients from peripheral body tissue to mammary glands. effectively, they are slowly killing the cow.

70% of US cattle are injected with this growth hormone ( 2007 stats ) that the majority of the world will not entertain because they believe its too dangerous.

Bribe/feed caged carousels

These suck. They are large rotating carousels where the cows are caged in a space where they cannot move. They have "black boxes" on thier legs which communicate with the main operating computer. They are fed just the right amount of food depending on how much milk they gave yesterday. They have added growth food if thier production drops

One person can milk about 400 cattle on a carousel so there is no time for checking the animals health - they just milk them dry and kick them out.

killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old

All bulls are killed at 1 week old, although some farms iin the UK started ( in 2006 ) shipping them to Continental Europe for veal again. They do not keep any back for breeding as they bring in new blood lines. In the UK we don't use dairy bull calves for veal anymore in country. They are either killed, or shipped out. Bull calves go to make low quality leather products such as cheap sofas.

They kill all free martins as there is a good chance they will be barren.

Strangly, they feed these animals with colostrum at birth to keep them alive, but then kill them a week later.

excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day

The growth food is all designed to produce excess milk. Cows are naturally designed to produce about 15 litres. The european targets for 2009 are set at 90 litres, i don't think it need me to tell you if this is heading the right or wrong direction.

intensive rearing means low husbandry checks

As mentioned above, most automatic dairies have one milkmaid per session, thats it. I know a dairy farm with 1200 cattle and 3 employees. Tell me how they can ever check the cattle....

removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed

This is stressful and not natural, cows bawl for about a week for thier young, calling them to be fed. Obviously the calf cannot "run to mom" because its in dog food by now.

killing the cow at 7 years old

Cows can naturally live up to 20 years old, limited by teeth errosion. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.

Answer 5

I think lactation is the result of pregnancy, happening even before the actual delivery as the female body is already anticipating the birth of a young.  

Only mammals produce milk as far as I know.

Eggs are different because they are chicken "periods" similar to human "periods" that are discarded when "unused". The hen was never pregnant.

Answer 6

It has happened but it could never be a viable option w/o even more drugs than are now used.

Answer 7

Even if there was a way for a mammal to produce milk without impregnation, what's the chance that this animal will be treated any better than a dairy cow?!  No doubt they would still be crammed onto dirty factory farms, mistreated and then slaughtered when they were no longer useful.

Answer 8

Ok, I don't know WHAT you've been reading, but apparently they don't know anything.

First of all, there are dairy cows, which produce milk all the time without impregnation. It's in their genes.

Second, chickens don't get pregnant! Roosters fertilize the EGGS. And chickens normally lay eggs once every two days, we have them.

Get your facts straight!

Answer 9

Well, human males can lactate if the situation is dire enough.