Animal suffering in Dairy industry

Veganuary might be over but the issue I wish to raise here is still relevant and important to all. Cows suffer a lot in the dairy industry. If you do not know about the dirty practices of dairy industry then please read on.

For a cow to lactate (give milk) it has to bear offspring. So cows are artificially inseminated repeatedly until they are too old to bear offspring.

Immediately after birth of a male calf it is culled as they are not useful to the dairy industry. Further, the new-born-calf's intestine is dried powdered and used (as rennet) in most varieties of cheese production. In this sense cheese can be considered non-vegetarian.

Cows are injected with artificial Oxytocin hormones to stimulate them to give milk even when they do not have young calf to feed at that moment. This artificial hormone can build up in the milk that is produced by the animal.

The cows that stop giving milk are slaughtered for their meat. So industrialised milk production is sustained by the beef industry at least in the west (but not sure in India).

The best way to reduce cow suffering is by avoiding dairy milk and its by-products and instead becoming a vegan. This way the demand for dairy milk products would reduce if adopted in large scale and over time reduce the number of cows that are reared in the dairy industry.

So I became a vegan in 2019! I use soya milk and soya yogurt and try to avoid or reduce cheese, ghee, butter, etc as much as possible. Everyone can make a difference however small a step they are able to take!