3 ms·

What do you mean by that? I would consider the treatment of dairy cows to be at least comparable to raising cows to kill them.

wmeredith 9y ago
What? They're not force fed and then slaughtered.
- stevula 9y ago
  Slaughter is not necessarily the worst part of their life.
emmelaich 9y ago
I think it's very possible to raise dairy cows without stress. Of course you have to milk some dairy cows or their bladder will get sore (and maybe burst). It's possible to do a lot better than we do when slaughtering; but even with the best methods there's going to be up to a second of bewilderment if not pain and terror.
Xoros 9y ago
There is a farm near where I lived some times ago, in France south west, where the cows are choosing when they want to be milked (assuming it's the good word for it). The farmers owned 2 or 3 machines where the cow goes when it wants to give milk, and get out whenever it feels about it. There's a video on their website where you can see it http://www.lafermeduramier.fr http://www.lafermeduramier.fr The cows can go outside whenever they want and sleep on some kind of mattress. I think they're having quite a cool life
- DanBC 9y ago
  You've missed out the bit where cows only produce milk for their young to drink, and so you need to keep breeding these milk cows. You get a bunch of calves. Half of those are female, and go to replace the older dairy herd, which are killed. The other half are male, and there's no use for male dairy calves, and so they're all killed while quite young. The selective breeding of dairy cattle has caused some genetic problems with modern cows. All of this applies to the free range end of dairy farming.
  - slothtrop 9y ago
    This selective breeding has gone on for thousands of years. Cows used to be much, much larger, unintuitively, which made them more difficult to manage. It's disingenuous to attribute their current make-up almost entirely to recent standards of breeding - they are a domesticated species, meaning they effectively evolved alongside humans.
- WalterSear 9y ago
  You've missed out what they did to all the male calves. And what they do to the cows after the 6 years or so (of a natural life of ~25).
hepta 9y ago
I imagine there is a way to raise a cow for beef that I find ethical. I don't know if you can do so for dairy cows. As far as I know, the cow has to have young to lactate, meaning it must be impregnated frequently. Am I wrong? This is in constrast with chicken eggs, which I believe can be ethically produced (even though they aren't in the large majority of the industry).

wmeredith 9y ago

What? They're not force fed and then slaughtered.

stevula 9y ago
Slaughter is not necessarily the worst part of their life.

emmelaich 9y ago

I think it's very possible to raise dairy cows without stress. Of course you have to milk some dairy cows or their bladder will get sore (and maybe burst). It's possible to do a lot better than we do when slaughtering; but even with the best methods there's going to be up to a second of bewilderment if not pain and terror.

Xoros 9y ago

There is a farm near where I lived some times ago, in France south west, where the cows are choosing when they want to be milked (assuming it's the good word for it). The farmers owned 2 or 3 machines where the cow goes when it wants to give milk, and get out whenever it feels about it. There's a video on their website where you can see it http://www.lafermeduramier.fr http://www.lafermeduramier.fr The cows can go outside whenever they want and sleep on some kind of mattress. I think they're having quite a cool life

DanBC 9y ago
You've missed out the bit where cows only produce milk for their young to drink, and so you need to keep breeding these milk cows. You get a bunch of calves. Half of those are female, and go to replace the older dairy herd, which are killed. The other half are male, and there's no use for male dairy calves, and so they're all killed while quite young. The selective breeding of dairy cattle has caused some genetic problems with modern cows. All of this applies to the free range end of dairy farming.
- slothtrop 9y ago
  This selective breeding has gone on for thousands of years. Cows used to be much, much larger, unintuitively, which made them more difficult to manage. It's disingenuous to attribute their current make-up almost entirely to recent standards of breeding - they are a domesticated species, meaning they effectively evolved alongside humans.
WalterSear 9y ago
You've missed out what they did to all the male calves. And what they do to the cows after the 6 years or so (of a natural life of ~25).

hepta 9y ago

I imagine there is a way to raise a cow for beef that I find ethical. I don't know if you can do so for dairy cows. As far as I know, the cow has to have young to lactate, meaning it must be impregnated frequently. Am I wrong? This is in constrast with chicken eggs, which I believe can be ethically produced (even though they aren't in the large majority of the industry).