Why don't vegans eat dairy products?

Question

I can't figure it out. I mean I know they don't like animals being hurt or killed for food, but if a hen lays an egg, what's the problem with it? It's only natural, and it didn't hurt the hen any. The same with cows. It doesn't hurt them to get milked. I'm not trying to be offensive to them, but I don't understand why you can't have dairy products.

Answer 1

It's the life of the chicken or cow and how they lived it.

Typically and most commonly, dairy cows in commercial dairies are forced into a pregnancy and then have the calf sold as veal the moment it's born because they cannot feed it - their milk comes in because of the pregnancy and birth and human beings immediately take over and start to "milk" her for profit.

Biologically a cow does NOT need to be milked continuously. Human beings are mammals like cows are, we breast feed our children and then our milk goes away when the child is old enough to eat solid food. Cows are the same. Unless a cow has pregnancies back to back and is constantly feeding a calf, her milk will pass just like ours does. The discomfort of having your milk go away is nothing compared to the daily process of having their udders engorge and swell with milk and then have them mechanically pulled from their bodies with machines, and not tender calf mouths that their udders are made for.

Organic or not, most dairies are pretty alike on those things - there has to be a pregnancy for the cow to lactate, and then supporting the dairy industry indirectly supports the veal industry because the veal is just that - waste, meat, byproduct of insemination and then forced lactation for years.

Once the cow's too old it becomes meat, there is no happy life at pasture, cows can only lactate for so long before they are just too old, and while a normal cow can live twice as long as a dairy cow, just past it's reproductive cycle, dairy cows are just slaughtered since they're no longer profitable.

Cows are very frequently injected with hormones that boost milk production, which I consider tampering with nature and inhumane. These hormones are present in trace elements in all dairy products from hormone-treated cows, only organic dairies can guarantee they don't have them.

Chickens are a whole different story, since you mentioned them. Chickens will lay eggs regardless. Having your own chickens or having a local farm that you trust is great. However, commercial chicken eggs are from horrible, despicable places. In fact, I think it is more humane to eat a steak than to eat an egg from a commercial chicken farm, with cage-bound hens that live a life of horror and pain.

Most eggs (95% for a conservative estimate) are cheap because they come from battery hens. They're kept in disgusting, filthy, tiny cages and shocked and forced to lay eggs. Chickens can't lay more than an egg a day AT BEST. They're oftentimes fed poorly, their bones are pretty much reduced to brittle powder, their feathers are falling off. People were hazard suits to enter the area the hens are in because the air is unbreathable, putrid and disgusting.

Free range or cage free are not a promise or guarantee, but usually the company responsible tries to let their chickens have a break. Sometimes they just have no cage - similiar conditions, beak to rear end in some warehouse by the thousands - but at least there's no cage. There's no defined time for free range - maybe the chicken gets to spend a few minutes outside every day. It could be a lie. Nobody checks on this stuff. Organic labels mean the chickens were fed organic feed, and there are some vague standards about their treatment, but it's still NOT a guarantee in any way.

That's not the worst of it - the majority of egg-laying hens are fed roxarsone, a type of organic arsenic that prevents worm infestations (considering how they're on top of one another in these places). Testing on dozens of egg varieties nationwide, ranging from Amish to organic to local grocery eggs, showed that more than half of all eggs have arsenic in them regardless. This arsenic builds up in the human system. But hey, it's saving the egg head honchos money!

Answer 2

because once an animal can no longer reproduce, make eggs, or create milk, the animal is slaughtered.theres nothing wrong with the cow after its unable to make milk, but they make more money but murdering it. and most of the time its not natural. they give animals hormones to produce more. birds are starved, because in there last few days of life, when their body is shutting down, the bird lays eggs. so they starve chickens so they will lay eggs. i hope ive enlightend you. :D

Answer 3

First of all, a cow, like every other mammal, must be pregnant to produce milk.  And she produces that milk to feed her baby, just like every other mammal.  However, within hours of birth, the cow's baby is taken from her.  And like any mom whose child is stolen from her, that hurts like all heck.  The daughters are raised to become dairy cows like mom.  The sons are typically shipped off to veal farms--the factor that made me dump dairy--although some become beef.

The vast majority--95 percent--of all hens kept for eggs are crammed into cages, and each has less room than a typical sheet of typing paper.  To prevent them pecking at each other due to the stress of being crammed in these cages, their beaks are seared off.  Baby male layer chicks, because they don't produce eggs and because they don't grow big enough fast enough to be profitable for their flesh, are typically killed at birth.

A dairy cow is considered spent around five years of age.  A hen is considered spent after about two years of age.  The ravages of their abuses have left their bodies battered and bruised.  The cows will become the burger you eat at a fast food restaurant.  The hens' flesh will become nuggets or low-cost potpies or some sort of food where the quality of the flesh is secondary.

And "free-range" is just greenwashing.  So-called free range animals aren't treated much better and are also killed when production declines.

Answer 4

I agree, do you really think cows or chickens would exist if we didn't eat them or their products? nope. But to answer your question, that egg would become a baby chick, and that milk is supposed to be for calfs.

Answer 5

because dairy products are made from animal substances. and vegans dont eat meat or meat products

Answer 6

Because you're idyllic notion of happy animals just offering us the fruits of their labor is just completely false.

Cows are like every other mammals, including humans.  They produce milk in response to having given birth and the milk they produce is *for their baby.*  For a dairy cow to produce milk for human consumption, her baby has to be taken away from her, and she has to be kept almost constantly pregnant.  In addition, dairy cows have been bred to have oversized udders and are pumped full of hormones and steroids so that they produce many times the milk that nature intended them to.  Mechanical milking of oversized teats means that most dairy cows have a constant infection called mastitis; it's painful and is treated by pumping a bunch of antibiotics into the chemical mix.  She spends most of her life inside, pregnant, eating an unnatural diet, having her babies ripped from her at birth, milked by a painful machine.  And instead of living for 15-20 years, like she should, she's worn out and used up at 5, at which point she's slaughtered for cheap beef.  In the meantime, all her male babies have already been slaughtered for veal.  It's NOT "only natural."  It's only cruel and inhumane.

Chickens face their own ugly, brutal fate.  Vegans don't choose to participate in brutalizing and exploiting animals for foods that we have no dietary requirement for.

Answer 7

Yea I think that it's weird too...I don't understand the milk thing but I don't think they eat eggs because they want it to become a chicken or something....lol. It's wierd. I don't know if this is a rumor but I think that they prey to their letuce before they eat it, and they don't squish bugs either.....

weeird

Answer 8

cause their weird and out of touch with reality. It is just the hard truth.