How Dairy Cows & Veal Calves Suffer The Daily Enlightenment Buddhist Inspirations (since 1997)

若诸比丘，不服东方丝绵绢帛，及是此土靴履裘毳、乳酪醍醐，如是比丘，于世真脱。酬还宿债，不游三界。何以故？服其身分，皆为彼缘，如人食其地中百谷，足不离地。

— 释迦牟尼佛
《楞严经》

If all Bhikṣus, [do] not wear eastern silk waddings [and] silk clothing, and this land’s [leather] boots [and] shoes, furs [and] down, [or eat and drink] milk, cheese, ghee [and] cream, such Bhikṣus, from [the] world, [will] truly [be] liberated. [Having] repaid past debts, [they will] not wander [through] the three realms. Why [is this] so? [Those] wearing their body parts, [are] all by those conditioned. Like people [who] eat this earth’s hundred grains within, [whose] feet [do] not leave [the] earth.

— Śākyamuni Buddha
(Śūraṅgama Sūtra)

As summarised from PETA’s site below:

12 Ways Dairy Cows Suffer

[1] Mother cows produce milk for the same reason as humans – only to feed their young; not humans.
[2] To force cows to keep producing milk, farms impregnate them with painful artificial insemination (using rape racks).
[3] Calves are ripped away from their mothers quickly, causing both great distress, as they call for each other for days.
[4] Male calves end up in cramped crates to be fattened for veal.
[5] Female calves later suffer the same fate as their mothers.
[6] After their calves are stolen, mother cows are hooked up, two or more times daily to milking machines.

[7] Their reproductive systems are exploited through genetic selection, despite negative effects on their health.
[8] With drugs forcing more production, the average cow today in 2019 produces more than four times than cows in 1950.
[9] Cows may be dosed with recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), which creates mastitis, painful inflammation of the udder. In America, 16.5% of dairy cows suffer and die of it.
[10] Cows’ natural lifespan is about 20 years, but dairy cows are killed after about five years as their bodies wear out from constant forced pregnancy and lactation.
[11] By the time they are killed, about half are lame due to standing on concrete flooring and filth in intensive confinement.
[12] Cows’ bodies are turned into soup, food for dogs and cats, or ground beef because they are too ‘spent’.

7 Ways Veal Calves Suffer

[1] Male calves are seen as ‘by-products’ of the dairy industry, robbed from their mothers when less than a day old.
[2] Many are shipped off to barren, filthy feedlots to await slaughter.
[3] Others are kept in tight prisons, to prevent moving much, so that their flesh will stay tender.
[4] To make their flesh white, calves are fed low iron with little nutrition, making them suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and pneumonia.
[5] Frightened, sick, and alone, they are killed after only a few months to be sold as veal.
[6] All adult and baby cows, raised for their flesh or milk, are eventually slaughtered, to be beef, leather, gelatine and such.
[7] Animal rennet is derived from the stomach of calves, lambs or goats for making cheese. Thus, most cheese is not even vegetarian, much less vegan.

Kinder Alternatives

Removing dairy products (cow-based milk, cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, butter, cream, ghee…) from your diet is easier than ever today. There are many vegan equivalent products, made of healthier and more eco-friendly ingredients such as soy, rice, oat, almond, quinoa, coconut and more.

必使身心，于诸众生，若身、身分，身心二途，不服不食，我说是人，真解脱者。

— 释迦牟尼佛
《楞严经》

If enabling [their] bodies [and] minds, of all sentient beings’ bodies or body parts, [with] both paths [of] body [and] mind, [to] not wear [and] not eat [them], I say these persons, [will be] those truly liberated.

— Śākyamuni Buddha
(Śūraṅgama Sūtra)

Related Articles:

The Dairy Industry in 60 Seconds Flat
https://youtu.be/wZcUrWAK-8Q