Want to be let in on a secret? Here's one the dairy industry would rather you didn't know...
Pretty bad, right? Can you believe the dairy industry is now quietly trying to make it perfectly legal to deny a bobby calf any feed for 30 hours before he is killed. Even criminals on death row get a last meal!
Outraged? Good! If you want to stop this awful cruelty, then the most important choice you can make is to go dairy-free! It's simple, healthy and as an added bonus, good for the planet! To make things even easier, we've already prepared a dairy-free shopping list for you!
And now it's time to make your voice heard!
- Click here to tell the dairy industry how much you think their treatment of bobby calves sucks.
- Then click here to share this video on Facebook and let all your friends in on dairy's dark secret.
- Then go here to find out how you could win some delicious dairy free chocolates!
And keep an eye out in major papers this week for something else we've got cooking up for this campaign ;)
Personally, I can honestly say that since dropping dairy, I've never gone without. I mean - have you tried a Tofutti Cutie? Heaven! I still drink 'milk', eat 'cheese', chocolate, yoghurt and ice cream but I leave the cows out of it.
Tell me... what's your favourite dairy-free treat?
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I've done the action alert, emailed a letter to Animal Health Australia and posted them a letter in the mail. I can't actually believe that people would WANT to starve a baby animal!
I run a volunteer animal welfare organisation helping
destitute animals and counselling their owners.
I am a Vegan.
Watching videos like this just reinforce everything it means for me being vegan
Plus I can't get enough of so good icecream!!! Add a big slice of vegan chocolate cake and I am in HEAVEN!!!
come on Australia lets the BETTER CONDITIONS START IN OUR OWN BACK YARD before we start putting pressure on other countrys
cheers judy
Animals Australia has not directed hatred at anyone with this campaign. We have simply ensured that the public were made aware of the new proposed standards and the consultation period - something that the govt and industry should have done by now.
Our heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by the floods.
Jesse, Animals Australia has not simply been providing a source of balanced information for the public. Go to your home page and re-read this stuff: "The dairy industry enjoys a carefully crafted public image that leaves many consumers with visions of happy animals and green rolling hills. In reality this tenuous image masks a history of animal abuse, which continues unabated due to a lack of public awareness."
Unabated history of animal abuse? That's a horrible thing to say about farmers. It does send a farmer like me a message of hate.
"What dark secret could be lurking in an unassuming glass of milk?" What can I say?
"The dairy industry has long operated under a veil of secrecy. They know that many consumers of milk would find the callous treatment of bobby calves completely unacceptable and rethink their financial support of the industry." I don't know what you mean. There's nothing secretive about what we do. Anyone is welcome here any time. Unfortunately, most urban people don't know any farmers and have lost a feeling for what farming is all about.
I wish organisations like AA and farmers could work together rather than behaving this way.
Wildlife docos make me cry (watch Shamwari on ABC for the news to find out how few baby animals make it to adulthood and are instead devoured by predators or starved to death).
Farm life takes its toll on us as farmers (financially, physically and emotionally) but it does make me very proud to teach my daughter how to do the right thing by creatures and the earth.
It would be lovely if Animals Australia would balance some of its blurb by recognising that Australia's dairy cows - free range, well fed, well regulated, hormone-free - are some of the best cared-for animals in the world.
Bobby Calves
I write to you in absolute shock i saw an ad in the courier mail last Thursday about Bobby Calves so i followed the links in the Animals Australia web site and was stunned by what I saw, all Australians should be shocked we Australians allow such a hideous brutal industry to continue to take away babies and that is all they are is babies some only 5 days old away from their mothers to be slaughtered just days after being born is just not right and should be stopped!!!!! We are Australians we condemn the Japanese for slaughtering whales and dolphins and the Canadians for the slaughter of the baby harp seals, yet we allow these little calves to be butchered for Dairy by-products??? it is wrong and should be stopped we should hang our collective heads in shame!!!These Dairy Farmers are the same ones that hold their hands out in times of trouble and expect the tax payer to help them out
Bobby Calves they are just babies
We are Australians we condemn the Japanese for slaughtering whales and dolphins and the Canadians for the slaughter of the baby harp seals, yet we allow these little calves to be butchered for Dairy by-products??? it is wrong and should be stopped we should hang our collective heads in shame!!!These Dairy Farmers are the same ones that hold their hands out in times of trouble and expect the tax payer to help them out I have lost total respect for these people they have no right to be called Australians it is very UN-Australian what they have been allowed to get away with.These baby are the same little animals that we allow our children to cuddle when the animal nursery comes to our pre-schools!!These People if that is what you can call them should be stopped from doing this barbaric practice and our politicians should stop it immediately let these so call farmers find other ways of keeping the their cows producing milk but stop them from butchering baby calves just to keep the milk flowing (To the Editor Please print this article so people can no the truth Please)
The calves don't get carted off by themselves in dark pens, BTW, they live together in large, airy pens of 3 to 6. They have constant access to water and calf muesli and - whether we can keep them or have to sell them, we feed them colostrum every 24 hours. They thrive on this.
The calves we plan to keep are kept in the pens with fresh sawdust bedding for 10 days until we are sure they are growing at the right rate and don't need any extra TLC.
After that, we let them out into a sheltered grassy paddock with 10 to 30 others of the some age. It really is pretty nice to see and kids who come to visit always ooh and aah over the whole situation. Not what you'd imagine from visiting this website, that's for sure.
It sounds like you take an interest in the welfare of your animals. That's nice to hear.
Out of interest, is your dairy farm a large scale operation, or a smaller farm?
I'd also be keen to know, as someone who is cares about the welfare of your animals, what do you think of the new proposed standard to permit calves to be off feed for 30hrs before slaughter?
Yes, we love all our animals, whether they are dogs, horses, cows or calves - we live with them, after all, and appreciate all their own unique personalities.
Our farm is almost perfectly average, according to industry statistics. We milk 250 to 260 cows on 500 acres without irrigation in Gippsland and the farm has been in the family since the 1920s.
I think the most critical thing is that the calves are sent when they are strong enough to run about and have adequate access to water.
As I mentioned above, our own calves do extraordinarily well and behave very contentedly on a 24 hour feed cycle at that age.
So, I think the bottom line is that, strictly so long as they get fed 4 litres of colostrum (which is incredibly rich and sustaining) before they leave the farm and get regular access to water so they don't get dehydrated, they can cope with 30 hours off feed without suffering.
I couldn't put my name to that as anything other than an absolute maximum though.
As an aside, I'm grateful for your polite question on what is a very emotional topic.
I respect AA for asking questions and challenging the status quo but have been dismayed by some of the nasty stuff written about farmers - particularly in the comments that follow one of the other blog postings on this site.
It makes me feel sick to be branded cruel, a "low life", "disgusting" and so on. I'm not and neither are any of the other dairy farmers I know. Given the ferocity of the personal attacks we're being subjected to, it's not surprising that so many farmers have so little to say. I've encouraged other farmers to post some comments but they don't believe anyone is prepared to listen.
Why can't the debate be more positive so that farmers can be less afraid to join the discussion?
Marion, a farmer has written about the excellent treatment of her animals, which I'm sure is so, but the concern I have is the need to send 5 day old calves away to be slaughtered.
Why can't they be allowed to graze for 6 mths before they are sold - all new life should be able to expect that much. How can an animal be made to produce offspring & never allowed to experience motherhood? How can the newborns be loaded onto trucks & as the video showed us, some actually stumbling - such a heartbreaking scene, as they begin their final journey?
If we continue to turn a blind eye to what is obviously occurring, we belittle ourselves as human beings. Our family consumes good quality cows, goats & sheep products, but unless I can find reputable sources, we will not buy anymore dairy products. I've found 1 reliable, humane goat dairy so far.
When making enquiries, I'm always sensitive towards the farmer I'm addressing, but the dairy farmers need to accept that we, firstly as human beings & secondly as consumers do genuinely have the right to question.
I've cried many tears over these 'accepted' practises in the dairy industry & I'm hoping to find a cow dairy which does not have 'bobby calves'. I do appreciate that there is not enough pasture on some farms, but if this is the case, I suggest the dairy needs to operate on a smaller scale.
I read somewhere that 'in each glass of milk is a little meat' & that is sometimes the case.
Just awful...I don't have the answers, they'll always be a market for milk and meat, but this week has been so upsetting, I'm making some major changes to my diet and I plan to support these campaigns. I've switched my brain onto animal welfare, better late than never...
Marian why should we be positive?
The whole industry has lied to us, over and over again! Why should we spare your feelings when farmers have not only hidden the truth from us but fabricated it? Where are the farmers feelings for the animals? Where were the farmers feelings for the consumers?
In WHAT way is it ethical to:
Continuously and forcibly impregnate an animal?
Make her give birth every year?
Steal a mothers baby?
Steal the milk for her baby?
So that an industry of abuse and slaughter can thrive?
They are left with debilitating mastitis and from the painful swelling that results in lameness in the cows?
After the mothers bodies are "spent" they are also slaughtered usually after 5 years, a cow's natural lifespan is 25 years?
When it isn't even a necessity?
Is that the ethics of the farmers?
I am very sorry you don't like people being upset at being lied to or at people finding out that animals are being treated
like fodder, but the simple fact is Marion, you engage in that behaviour, if you don't want people to be mad at you for it, don't engage in it. Simple.
Why is it different for dogs and cats? Because they aren't given
to their new families until they are weaned, and they aren't stolen from their mothers then slaughtered like waste.
Farmers want compassion? Well they will get as much compassion as they show other living beings from me.