Investigation Of Dairy Industry Finds Abused Calves, Filth And Flies

Mumbai, : People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA ) India has just completed a 20 page report detailing the filthy conditions and daily abuse of cows and their calves documented during a recent undercover investigation of India's dairy industry. PETA's investigators witnessed cows and buffaloes who were routinely struck and kicked, buffaloes who bled bur received no attention, unsanitary conditions in the tabelas and other examples of abuse and filth. PETA will present video footage and other documented findings from the investigation at a news conference in Mumbai.

The following are just some of the horrors that PETA investigators observed :

Most cows raised for the dairy industry are confined in filthy, crowded sheds, denying them everything that is natural and important to them. They are often chained by their necks in narrow stalls and given hormones that cause them to produce more milk. One such drug, Oxytocin which causes the animals severe stomach cramps and quickly wears out their bodies is rampant even though its use in the dairy industry is illegal.

Male calves, who are of no commercial value to the dairy industry, are tied up with ropes so short that animal cannot even lift their heads. They often strangle themselves in a frantic attempt to reach their mother. Many are killed for their skin, while others are simply abandoned in the streets. Female calves replace their mother on dairy farms and the vicious cycle of pain and suffering is repeated.

Under natural conditions, a cow can live up to 18 years, but cows raised for milk are only about 6 or 7 years old when they are sent to the slaughterhouse to be killed for their meat and skin. The animals are often killed in full vies of each other, and instead of the required 'quick slice' across the throat with a sharp knife, they are generally killed through hacking and sawing with a dull blade.

PETA's investigator observed 'barefoot healers' who inserted artificial insemination guns into one cow after another with sterilising the device and shoved their soapy hands into the animals uterus, causing the cows immense pain and exposing them to potential infections. In order to keep the cows from moving, the barefoot healers roughly held the cows and even struck them.

Cows are transported to states where they can legally be killed. Forced to walk through the heat and dust for days without food or water, many of the animals collapse. Handlers pull the cattle by ropes through their noses and twist them moving. They force the cattle in and out of trucks without ramps, causing injuries such as broken pelvises, legs, ribs and horns. As many as half of the animals will already be dead by the time they arrive at the abattoir.

The dairy industry also causes human suffering. Besides causing constipation, phlegm and the painful consequences of lactose intolerance, dairy products have also been conclusively linked to allergies, obesity, heart disease, some cancers and even osteoporosis the very condition that the dairy industry likes to claim that dairy products prevent.

'Dairy industry sales pitches are whitewash, because milk and other dairy products are linked to serious health problems for humans and a sad life for today's factory farmed cows and their calves' says PETA's Vegan Campaign Coordinator Nikunj Sharma. ' We urge everyone to do these animals and themselves a big favour and leave cow's milk to be consumed by those for whom intended baby cows