As a culture, we acknowledge that in order to eat animal flesh, the animals must first be killed. Many individuals abstain from eating meat because they are ethically opposed to this killing; yet they continue consuming dairy products under the assumption that it is not necessary to slaughter animals for their milk and eggs. This is a common misconception. In reality, commercially raised milk- and egg-producing animals -- whether factory-farmed or free-range -- are slaughtered when their production rates decline.
Economics demands that dairy cows be killed at about one quarter of their life span. The 1998 animal agriculture textbook Scientific Farm Animal Production, 6th Edition, (SFAP) points out:
The average productive life of a dairy cow is short (approximately 3-4 years). Many cows are culled [i.e., killed] primarily because of reproductive failure, low milk yield, udder breakdown, feet and leg weaknesses, and mastitis.
The veal industry is an offshoot of the dairy industry, and calves are normally taken from their mothers at a young age. When confronted with a bellowing cow, meat industry consultant Dr. Temple Grandin noted, "That's one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. It's like grieving, mourning -- not much written about it. People don't like to allow them thoughts or feelings." (An Anthropologist on Mars, 1995) SFAP points out: Dairy calves rarely nurse their dams [mothers].
In the Western U.S., dairy cows tend to be on feedlots, where they live outside year-round, but are free to walk around the lot. In the Midwestern U.S., cows are usually kept indoors for most, if not the entire year. Some are in "free-stall" barns where they can walk around. Others are in "tie-stall" barns as described in SFAP:
In tie-stall barns, cows are tied in a stanchion and remain there much of the year; feeding and milking are done individually in the stanchion.
In the egg industry, male chicks are often discarded in trash bags to suffocate or starve to death because they cannot produce enough meat to justify being raised for flesh. They are the lucky ones; as egg-laying females must live on wire floors that dig into their feet, in cages so tiny that they cannot stretch their wings, stacked in buildings filled with ammonia fumes from feces.
The agribusiness person makes some extra money off the dairy cows' and egg-laying hens' carcasses. Even if there was no extra money, they would still be killed when their production rates declined because it would cost too much to feed the animals until their natural deaths.
Giving up meat is a good step towards not contributing to the suffering of other animals. But, as a society, we should face the fact that there is little ethical difference between consuming flesh, dairy, or eggs.
If you give up milk and eggs, please make sure you have some good sources of calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B-12 (see ADA position paper).
To have their eggs and milk, the animals will be killed.
Next: Wool
Previous: Vegan Resources