Vegans: I don't understand you... Cows provide us with milk and that's all they were intended to do... ?

Question

What more is there to their lives?

Answer 1

Cows make milk to feed their young..just like humans and all other mammals.

Answer 2

You are a sick person. Is that all you care about....what they DO for us.

If you went around thinking that about people, you would probably be the most selfish person on the planet.

Animals are part of our world as much as people are. No, I'm not saying they are more important. But I do believe that they should be treated in a humane way. (not locked up in cages & fed hormones to make them grow spontaneous and painfully) Oh, and you're right, cows were intended to provide milk... FOR THEIR YOUNG! But I guess you've never thought how strange it is that we are the only species that consumes another species milk. It's like we don't have enough of our own, so we have to go taking someone else's. And not just that! Also, we have to we have to do it in a CRUEL way. Now that's just not right!

Think about it....

Answer 3

No, they aren't. You need to be more educated next time, because you're seeing everything as this candy-coated world, and that's much different than how things really are in the commercial dairy industry.

Answer 4

Why are you here? There is over 6 billion people on the earth and your pondering whys a cow is here? Nobody knows , nobodys know why you or anything is here.

# Humans : the only mammal thats drink milk from a other species!

Answer 5

Cows produce milk for their children, if it wasn't for humanity ******* up their breeding process than they wouldn't produce so much milk. And yea? Well humans are /intended/ to survive and have children. So what? Are you just going to breed yourself because its what you were /intended/ to do?

Answer 6

I wouldn't have a problem drinking milk from a cow if I had my own happy cow in its own happy pasture.  The thing is, though, that the modern dairy industry is VERY different from that life for the cow.  The cow leads a very unhappy life, crammed inside a tiny stall, not getting to enjoy everything natural for it.  When we buy milk, we directly fund that.  That's the reason I object to milk.

Answer 7

my sister has a pretty pointless life, doesn't mean we should milk her though, does it ?

There is probably no point in telling you about the issues surrounding the dairy industry but here goes anyway:

Artificial incemination every year

Cows would naturally calve every 2-3 years. Dairy farms artificially inceminate them every 11 months. This causes excessive stress on the cows body, increses the chance of prolapse and generally "wears them out" in a few years, rather than a natural 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 Australiasia 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, cows bawl for weeks 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 to 20 years old. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.

Hope that helps.

Answer 8

cows are supposed to make milk for their young, but humans attach them to electronic milking machines and it can give them electric shocks, painful lesions, and mastitis

i also just learnt that cow milk can give u  breast and prostate cancer.

Answer 9

Well i'm just a vegetarian and i eat and drink eggs and milk because there is a lot of things you can't make with out it. but it's the way they do it. The machines hurt the cows. And if you go to a dairy farm you will see cows walking around bruised and with their oters toattly red and hurting.

Answer 10

Intended?  Intended by whom?  You're presumably female, based on your avatar.  Do you think that all *you* were "intended" to do is give birth and produce milk?  Cows, or any other animals for that matter, don't have to have a purpose to justify their lives to you.

Vegans don't take milk from cows because cows produce milk for their infants, not for people, and because raising cows for dairy production causes pain, suffering and premature death.  The dairy industry also directly supports the veal industry which we do not support.

Answer 11

Well cows aren't there to provide US with milk, they're there to provide their own children with milk. I guess you might want to go talk to your own mother and ask her why she is leading a pointless life instead of being hooked up to a breast pump and mailing you milk. What more is there to her life?

Most living creatures have a fairly pointless life. A hundred years from now there'll be pretty much nothing lasting of our presence on this planet except maybe some genetics we pass on to kids and a photograph or something. Five hundred years from now and unless you're a major historical figure, you are meaningless, just a drop of water in the ocean of time.

Following your train of thinking, I can only assume you have been educated solely out of textbooks at least 50-100 years old... you probably also agree with the role of women in the 1950's... just a pair of b*****s attached to a womb, barefoot in the kitchen... or races a hundred years before that where people were labeled on the "savage" scale based on skin color (blacks on one end, red and yellow people in the middle, whites on the "civilized" end).

Answer 12

That's ok mate, I don't ask that you understand us - just that you respect our choices (hint - calling people n***s is not respectful, as well as showing appalling ignorance of history and the meaning of words. Oh, and a tendency to generalise wildly rather than reason. Still, your 'vegans are n***s' question has gone now).

This is an odd question though, coming from someone who just last week said: ''A raw vegan will do wonders for your appearance. Your inside organs will become beautiful and will change your outside appearance!''

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 13

Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do -- to nourish their own babies.

A cow’s natural lifespan is 25 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are killed after only four or five years. Cows raised for beef and cows raised for milk are both slaughtered; it's just a matter of timing.

More info:

http://www.chooseveg.com/dairy.asp

Answer 14

the vegans feel the same about ppl who ask ignorant questions and not realizing that different ppl make different choices

Answer 15

You appear to be a female mammal and perhaps there is an ignorant person somewhere who would describe your reason for being as to produce offspring and milk.  Cattle are living animals with feelings.  They enjoy the sunshine.  They are happy when Spring comes and they can eat fresh grass again.  How do you know "what they are intended to do"?  

I think they are intended to live out their lives the same as the rest of us mortals!

Answer 16

I am not a Vegan.. but even I know your comment is stupid!

okay so what is the purpose of people?? is our purpose to pollute?? to kill and consume?? to sit on our butts to watch TV??

cows purpose is to provide milk for their calves.. WE happen to steal alot of it for our own use.. and kill the calves - we call them - veal.

Answer 17

one day you baby will say the same about you, but you wont feel that way. will you? haha

Answer 18

Wow. That argument is really twisted.

Cows provide milk for BABY COWS. Humans provide milk for humans. Do you see any other examples in nature where one species steals the milk of another?! Do elephants take milk from the water buffalo in the African Savannah?

I didn't think so.

Cows are intended to live happy, healthy, stress-free lives. ALL living creatures deserve that no matter how intelligent they are. God created everything on Earth for a reason. While I cannot speak for Him, I have read His Word and I know that He did not create cows, pigs, chickens, fish, and other such animals for humans to exploit, torture and abuse.

And btw- are you subtly telling us something with the name of your avatar?

Answer 19

What more is there to their lives?

Whats more to your life troll?

.

Answer 20

Vegans avoid milk for the same reason they avoid meat: because farms are atrociously cruel to these animals, and because farmers kill them at a young age.

Did you know that half of all dairy cows are lame, and a quarter get painful udder infections each year? Did you know that after a few cycles of being artificially impregnated and having their calves taken from them after birth to keep the milk flowing, dairy cows are slaughtered just like any other cow for low-grade hamburger meat? For more info about the cruelty to dairy cows on modern farms, see http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_Cows...

If cruelty to animals is wrong, then paying for this kind of abuse by buying milk is also wrong. Simple as that.

Cattle in nature live in herds, have complex social lives, raise and care for their children, and so on -- just like cats and dogs, in fact just like people. It is for this that they were intended. Animals on farms are not just the eating machines many people thing, they are complicated, fascinating, intelligent creatures deserving of respect and compassion.

Answer 21

Mmmmh.  Delicious milk.  The reason vegans don't drink milk is because they all secretly want to have s*x with animals.  This is a true fact.  The founding father of veganism, Theodore Schmalcock, was executed for marrying an alpaca.